The Azeroth Hive
by Summer Gambit
Summary: Knowing that defeat is immediate, Sylvanas accepts the help of the being that calls itself the "Overmind" and becomes the Zerg Queen of Azeroth. With a hive the Overmind send to Azeroth centuries ago, only to lose contact, she fights back against Arthas and his army. But how will her people react to her changes? Or the other races? What will happen to Azeroth?
1. Chapter 1

Sylvanas knew the situation was dire. No, dire didn't quite explained the situation the Rangers of Quel'Thalas found themselves in. The inner gates had fallen, they were once again on the retreat, half of them were wounded and worse of all, the undead army was stronger than when it breached the borders to their precious homeland. It wouldn't take long for the undead army to reach Silvermoon. Sylvanas had already sent one of the more fitter rangers to the capital city of the High Elves, in order to warn their leaders and prepare their defences. Sadly, Sylvanas couldn't afford to send an escort with her ranger. Plus earlier that day, their group had been attacked by a small number of Gargoyles, flier units which up to this point the enemy army had held back for some reason. Now they not only had to watch the air, but also chances were high that another scouting party found their messenger and killed him off.

Right now, it was dark. The Rangers expected the enemy army to arrive the next day. Their own scouts had already spotted a vanguard force. No one doubted that this would be their last stand.

"If anything" Sylvanas spoke out loud "we might be able to buy Silvermoon enough time to rally its forces and prepare the defences. Even if they're not able to counter these abominations, the Sunwell will protect our people and give them a chance to survive."

The other elves looked up from the fire and towards their general. "But...there're so many! Can our people hold out against so many?" One younger ranger asked. He had lost his left arm during the last fight, but refused to leave, claiming he could still hold a sword. At this point in time, Sylvanas had no choice but to accept what she got.

"Our mages will be able to create a shield around the city." Explained a ranger. "It takes some time, but if we can provide this time, our highest mages will be able to create an impenetrable shield, which can last as long as the Sunwell exists. Food and water won't be a problem for a long time and even if, our people would be able to use portals to get to Dalaran or at least somewhere close and ask for reinforcements."

Sylvanas held her tongue in check as to not to comment on the humans. Right now she didn't have the highest opinions of their so called "allies", thanks to a certain bastard prince, who dares to invade their home right at this very moment.

"So we have a chance."

"And it's our last." The General got up to her feet. "We have to make this count! Silvermoon depends on us more than ever. I won't lie to you. Tomorrow will be our last day as living beings on this world. Whether we will end up dead or undead doesn't matter. What does matter is that we give Silvermoon enough time, so that our city and our people won't fall into the hands of the slaughterer!"

The others nodded in agreement, their faces showing a grim expression.

"Get your rest tonight, rangers. Tomorrow we will show the so called "prince" what the children of Quel'Thalas are truly made off!"

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Further away from Silvermoon, Arthas watched from a high up position as his army of undead cut down trees, as it marched through the old woods. A satisfying smirk appeared on his face, as he watched his meat wagons passing by, overloaded with dead elf bodies. He could raise them now, but it would slow his army down, considering just how many bodies they were transporting. Not to mention, his necromancers were constantly working on new kinds of ways to bring back the dead, maybe even give them additional powers. Plus they needed material in order to repair the damaged abominations.

From behind, one of his necromancers approached the fallen prince, bowing as the man arrived at his lord's side.

"My Lord, our Gargoyles have spotted a ranger from Sylvana's troops, heading towards Silvermoon, presumably a messenger. They killed him, of course, but the Ranger General might send more."

"She is persistent." Commented the dark Prince. "Persistent and annoying. Let our Gargoyles fly in a perimeter, but don't let them get too close to Silvermoon. Keeping the elves in the unknown is key to my strategy."

"As you wish, my lord." The necromancer bowed once again, before leaving. Arthas returned his attention to his army.

"You will regret ever getting in my way, Sylvanas. Tomorrow I will grant you some hope, before I will crush you with all my might. And then your true suffering will begin, as you will lead my army to your race's ultimate defeat."

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 _Sylvanas found herself standing on hill. Silvermoon was burning beneath her, the Sunwell had been destroyed, completely rendering the elves defenseless as the source of their might was lost forever. And worse of all, the traitor prince stood over their fallen leader, laughing like the maniac he was. Anger was consuming the Ranger. Picking her last arrow, she took aim at the prince's head. There was no wind going on and from that distance she couldn't miss him. She adjusted her aim slightly and took in a deep breath…_

 _But then he looked at her. He had spotted her! And all he did was smirking, like he had before. Sylvanas let go of the arrow. She wanted to let go of it, but for some reason her body wouldn't let her._

 _What was wrong?! All she needed to do was to let go and then she would have at least gotten rid of the bastard! So why didn't she just shoot?_

" _So much fighting spirit still within you?" Her eyes widened as she heard his voice in her head!_

" _I will have fun breaking you."_

 _And then, out of nowhere images flashed through her mind. She and her rangers fighting against the undead, mockery of attacks being sent to their camp, all the while one after another, their messengers were killed by those damn Gargoyles! Finally The prince himself showed up, a huge army of ghouls and abominations backing him up. They never stood a chance. Sylvanas, having run out of arrows, engaged in a sword fight with her nemesis. The first clash already showed their difference in strength. Arthas played with her, mocking her with gestures and taunts. After what seemed like forever, he punched the elf in the gut and pierced her heart with Frostmourne._

 _Sylvanas could feel the darkness, which was death, embracing her, yet before it could fully take her soul into the next world hand grasped her soul and painfully brought her back to the world of living. She woke up in her own, rotting body._

" _NO!" Sylvanas shouted. This couldn't be real, this…!_

…

" _Where am I?" she asked aloud, realizing that her surroundings had once again changed. She was now standing in endless darkness. Nothing but black was in front of her eyes._

" _ **This is the fate"**_ _a voice loud and booming echoed through her head_ _ **"of your people, if you do not stop this Terran."**_

 _Sylvanas spun around and found herself face to face with a floating red eye of all things. The first thing that came to the Ranger's mind was that in front of her was nothing more than a demon. Personally she had only fought a few of them in various circumstances. She only heard about those eyes demons used as spies and scouts._

" _What do you want, demon?!" Sylvana's spat, although she had a fairly good idea as to why a demon would seek her out now of all times. "Where am I?"_

 _The eye closed, almost looking amused._

" _ **Your physical body has not been moved. You are fast asleep, dreaming. I simply connected my mind to yours, Sylvanas Windrunner. However, you are mistaken in my true nature. I am not what you call a demon. I am or rather I was a Zerg."**_

" _Zerg?" the elf asked. "And what do you mean, you were? Just who are you for that matter?!"_

 _The eye opened again._ _ **"I was once called the Overmind."**_ _Some kind of magical screen appeared behind the eye, similar to when a mage opens a portal to a location or other. It showed her a big mass of flesh with tentacles and teeth on it. In the middle of the mass seemed to be some kind of mouth._

" _ **Once I was the leader of what was called, the Zerg."**_ _The scene changed into insect type monsters running on top of some purple mass. There were also bigger "Zerg", almost looking like buildings, probably nests._

" _ **The Zerg are a race, being capable of adapting to any environment, constantly evolving, all for the preservation of the swarm."**_

 _There was some kind of egg in front of one of the nests. Sylvanas couldn't help, but jump back, when a gigantic monsters grew out of the small egg. It had similarities to a beatles with huge sized blades attached to it. There were also snake like creatures, with blades attached to some arms and flying, almost dragon like creatures could also be seen._

" _ **World after world we invaded and claimed as our own. As time went on, we met the Protoss."**_

 _Pictures of blue, mouthless bipeds in golden armor and magical blades appeared, slaughtering one monster after another. Sylvanas could only feel awe, upon seeing these creatures fight with such grace._

" _ **It was one of their leaders who eventually killed me during the battle of their homeworld."**_

" _Killed you?!"_

" _ **Indeed. It was the power of the Terran's weapon, which brought me back to the world of the living. If only temporarily."**_

" _So what? Do you expect me to bring you back for good?"_

" _ **No. I do not wish to fully return."**_

 _Sylvana's raised an eyebrow._

" _ **Because if I would, the dark one would find me. And if he would find me, he would enslave my Zerg once again."**_

" _Dark one? Enslave?"_

 _The eye nodded._

" _ **The Dark One belongs to the race who created both Zerg and Protoss. However, he planned to use both in order to resurrect himself from the void. For this, he took many Zerg from our original homeworld and changed us, so we could fight the Protoss. His intentions for doing so still delude me up to this day. But without me, he has no power over the remaining Zerg."**_

" _I admit this much, I am interested in your story. However for one: I don't see how it helps me. For two: I don't trust you. And three: I have quite frankly better things to do, than to listen to the story."_

 _The Overmind chuckled in his deep, booming voice. Sylvanas found it disturbing._

" _ **Then at least let me tell you, why I have sought you out. As of now, you chances of winning the battle are nonexistent. Even if you can buy enough time, the Terran named Arthas will never allow word to arrive to the rest of your race. Eventually you will be overwhelmed and added to his army."**_

 _The elf gritted her teeth. "Even so, we give up without a fight! The chances may be nonexistent in your opinion, but clearly you haven't seen elves fight!"_

" _ **Maybe. You may have a chance, but deep down you know that you will die. Die and be resurrected as a slave."**_

" _Grr…"_

" _ **I have a proposal for you."**_

" _I think I have a pretty good idea, about your proposal…"_

 _The screen appeared again, this time showing an abandoned mine deep in the woods of Quel'Thalas. Sylvanas knew the location. She was once sent to investigate it, since there had been sightings of monsters from reliable sources. In the end they found nothing. However the mine still was left abandoned, since it simply was too far away from Silvermoon and the gold wasn't needed anyway._

" _ **Centuries ago, I send off smaller scout forces, looking for possible worlds to invade. I lost contact to one and thought them lost, dead. But when I was brought back, I found them."**_

" _Don't tell me…"_

 _Again the eye nodded._

" _ **A full functioning hive is inside those caves. As long as my mind remains on this world, I can take control on the nest, at least until I perish once again. When that happens, the Zerg will go back to a wildernate state, killing everything in that is not a Zerg. While I have seen your...magic capabilities, there would be still many losses before you killed the last one. Someone needs to control, but in order for them to control them, they need to become Zerg."**_

" _Okay. I see where this is going. And I have to ask: do you take me for a fool?! Why should I trust you?! How do I know, you don't have some alternate plan! Maybe bring you back to life?! Maybe you want to have my body?! How can I possibly trust you?!"_

" _ **You can't."**_ _The Overmind stated simply._ _ **"You either die tomorrow and become an undead or accept my help and become a Zerg. The choice is yours, Sylvanas Windrunner. Think carefully. You do not have much time."**_

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Sylvanas woke up with a migraine bigger than Arthas' cruelty. She rubbed her forehead, cringing and silently cursing. Opening her eyes, she could see it was just before dawn. She remembered the dream she just woke up from very clearly, but shook it off with some extreme willpower.

"We need to prepare. If no one from Sylvermoon arrived as of now, then it meant that their messenger had been caught and killed. Determined she approached the Nightwatch, who saluted to her as she came near them.

"No one came my lady."

"I know, Varias must have been killed. There's no time to mourn, one of us needs to get there! Wake up the others, Arthas might send us a "wake up call", so to speak."

"At once."

Arthas' forces didn't take long. A scouting party, consisting of ghouls and a few necromancers. The archers quickly took care of the necromancers, before they could even think of so much as casting a spell. The ghouls weren't much trouble either, as it were not enough against so many veteran rangers.

"Elleria! Go now and watch the skies! Take cover under the trees!"

"At once, General!" Elleria gave a quick salute, before she started running. Sylvanas prayed for her safety.

Counterattacking was out of the questions and there was no time to prepare complicated traps now. All they could do is wait and hold out the next attack. It didn't take long to arrive. This time there were Nerubians in the mix and their ranged attacks made things complicated. In order to ease things up, Sylvanas send in the few remaining mages, in order to let it rain lightning on the Nerubians. It exhausted their mages and the General desperately hoped that the time until the next attack would be enough for them to recover.

Sylvanas and her rangers were on the lookout for the next attack. The last two attack they got lucky. Arthas wouldn't let this happen a third time. As her eyes scanned for anything that resembled rotten flash, an all too familiar voice appeared in her head.

" _ **Your messenger is dead."**_

Thanks to her training and long life, the general didn't show any distress, aside from looking grimmer than before.

" _Get lost."_

" _ **Look at the size of the attack."**_

Just as the Overmind said those words, Sylvana's keen eyes spotted a huge attack coming their way. It wouldn't be impossible to throw this one back, but their losses would be devastating.

" _We need to get just one through. Just-"_

" _ **It is pointless. You will all die, unless you accept my help."**_

" _Why should I trust you?! What do you get from helping us?!"_

" _ **A chance."**_

" _A chance?! What chance?!"_

" _ **There is not much time left."**_

" _You haven't answered my question!"_

…

No answer. Sylvanas gritted her teeth. "Get ready, rangers! They're coming once again!"

The fight went, as it was to be expected. Sylvanas forces having fought for weeks non stop, with only small breaks the elves were at their limit. The undead didn't need any rest. They attacked and attacked, not caring if someone in their ranks fell. They could easily replace them with the fallen enemy. And they did. The necromancers didn't waste any time, reviving every elf that fell. Finding herself fending off three ghouls and an abomination at once, Sylvanas pushed the remote button to detonate the bombs they buried the night before. A little something they got from the goblins. The resulting explosion blew up the ground and every undead in the area. Sadly it also meant the loss for half their own troops.

Sylvanas fell on her back, being knocked back from the blast. It took her moment before she could get back up and witness what she had done. Body parts lying everywhere, the smell of burning flesh in the air, the destroyed trees, the huge holes in the ground and her troops. Her tired and beaten troops. One had lost a leg and was screaming on top of his lungs for help. Another one tried to provide first aid, but there was no chance he would get through, let alone survive the next attack.

" _Silvermoon needs to be warned. Lunara seems still-"_

" _ **She will die. Just like all the others who died during the battle."**_

" _Won't you ever SHUT UP?! I don't NEED the help of a demon or zerg or whatever you are!"_

" _ **You need my help. Your people will die. Your race will be enslaved. Forever."**_

Sylvanas gritted her teeth. In the back of her mind she noted that she was doing this a lot recently. She began weighing her options. She could send another ranger, who would most likely get killed and they would be overwhelmed. The other option was to accept the so called "help". The only problem was, she didn't know what would hurt her folk more. Being killed and revived as undead slaves or whatever this so called Overmind had planned. Maybe it was a creation of Arthas, just to mock her in some twisted way. But then again what did she or her people had to lose at this point? In a strange way, just dying would be the lesser of two evils for her people.

" _Fine. But if you betray me and I know you will, remember this. I am going to hunt you down, no matter where you are!"_

The Overmind didn't respond. At least not in the way she expected him to. The very ground started to shake and cracks started appearing on it. The archers who were still able to stand, readied their bows.

"What is this?"

"Have they been digging under the ground?"

Their answers were answered when a gigantic worm shot out of the ground, letting out a scream of terror. The elves fell onto their buds, while the worm settled to the ground with only his head sticking out. Before anyone could get back up, the worm opened its huge mouth, spitting out huge insects! There was no better way to describe them as "insect hounds", "insect snakes" and oversized...cockroaches (?) came out of the mouth and had soon surrounded the rangers. The elves just got ready to fight, when all of the sudden…

"Stay down!"

Everyone turned their heads to the one who shouted.

"G-general?!"

"These are...reinforcements."

"What?!"

The insect creatures moved into a defensive line formation. The elves themselves were way too dumbstruck (and exhausted) to do anything. One of the less injured archers moved over to the general who eyed the Zerg critically.

"General, what in the name of the sunwell is going on?"

Another bunch of insects came out. They were smaller than the other Zerg, but still as big as horses with huge fins on the sides. They carried something inside of flashy sacks.

" _ **Drones. They will build a hive cluster here, in order to defend you properly, during your transformation."**_

" _Transformation? Oh yes...you mentioned something like this. What is in the sacks?"_

" _ **Compromised biomass. Special proteins were added to speed up the transformation. What normally would take weeks, will be compromised into a few hours. A side effect is that the transformation is more painful than it usually would be."**_

" _I will endure any pain, if it means saving the people of Kel'Thalas!"_

" _ **I see."**_

Without any kind of warning, some of the nearby snake like Zerg spat out some kind of glibbery mass against ALL rangers. Everyone screamed up and tried to get rid of the sticky stuff, but was engulfed in a matter of seconds, completely trapped and immobile. Sylvanas was no exception.

As soon as the struggling in the pods faded, the Overmind appeared as a red-eye-ghost, floating in mid-air and watching his Zerg building an outpost. He felt somewhat nostalgic, being able to battle again. However, he needed to mind his energy. He could already feel the Void calling for him once again and it would only be a matter of hours, until he died again.

" _ **Dark One. You may be a Xel'Naga, but imprisoning me in my own mind was your worst mistake. Now not only have I one, but soon two champions to challenge you. I may not live to see your fall, but I will die with the satisfaction of knowing that one day, you will follow me."**_

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"Just when I thought she had ran out of tricks. I'll make that bitch suffer. Come, my servants! We will defeat Sylvanas once and for all!" With a raised sword, Arthas galloped head on towards the High Elf camp.


	2. Chapter 2

Arthas stopped his horse and raised an arm to signal the army to do the same. In front of him was something he hadn't really expected to see. A small army of insectoid like monsters was waiting for him and his troops, eyeing them with their predatory gazes. Behind those literal insect monsters were huge blobs getting bigger by the second. Inside of those appeared to be some kind of insect swimming inside.

"What is this? Some kind of secret weapon of the elves? And where is Sylvanas?"

"Be careful." The ghost of Kel'Thuzad appeared next to the deathknight. "I can feel a strong presence in their midst."

"Well, looks like things are about to get interesting. No matter what kind of monsters the elves summon, they stand no chance against the scourge. Attack!"

As if they had just waited for Arthas to make his first move, the snake like creatures began shooting spines out of their bodies. The projectiles ripped the flesh of most of the undead apart before they could even come close to the enemy. Arthas was unfazed by this. Ghouls were replaceable. However he did make a mental note of them, as to not let his Gargoyles too close. They were rather fragile, but made it up with agility. Still, those monsters shot impressively fast. He would have to take care of them first, before calling down his air support.

He stopped his horse, deciding not to enter the battlefield too early. Instead his abominations and Nerubians took lead of the charge. The latter hid behind the larger units, until they came in range. Another thing Arthas made note of. These beasts had a fairly longer range, than his spider minions. A couple of hundred meters before his army reached the enemy post, these hound like creatures came out of the trenches (which the earlier explosions created). These dog-like things swarmed his bigger slaves. The abominations fought back with their huge axes and managed to hit and successfully kill a few of those things. But Arthas could see that these hounds were shredding the flesh of the oversized zombies faster than a pack of starved wolves.

"Nerubians! Kill those hounds immediately!"

The huge spiders obliged and focused their fire on the "hounds" closest to the heavy hitters of the undead army. The enemy bugs didn't seem to be fazed by the attacks, although they were starting to bleed. The death knight had to admit, this surprised him. And he was in for more. Sneakily Roaches had burrowed themselves through the ground and resurfaced behind the nerubians. Before any of the undead could comprehend what was happening, the spiders were melted in acid. Their screams of pain could be heard miles away.

"What the- what are these?!" Arthas shouted. Necromancers and nearby ghouls started attacking those things, but like the hounds those things didn't care. Worse, when they were about to die, they borrowed themselves back into the ground. Digging after them proved to be futile, as they were just too deep dug in.

"Damn it, this was not supposed to happen!"

" _Lord Arthas! Your meatwagons are under attack!"_ shouted the ghost of Kel'Thuzad.

"What?!" The death knight turned around and watched in horror, as his siege weapons were melted into the ground. Somehow some of those accide spitting monsters had gone past his main attack force and destroyed the siege weapons. Arthas growled, shooting green necromancy magic at one of those things. It proved to be deadly for the monster.

"So magic still works, huh? Fall back! Regroup at camp!" the champion of the Lich King ordered. Immediately, all undead turned around and ran for the hills, where they set up the base. Strangely enough those insect fellows didn't follow the undead, but instead went back to Sylvana's camp.

Back in the safety of the Ziggurat defense, Arthas had called his lead necromancers to him. Three necromancers bowed in front of him, awaiting orders.

"Sylvanas caught me off guard with those monsters of hers, but that won't happen a second time. These insects are still vulnerable to magic and that's how we're going to crush them. You will prepare your necromancers for combat. Once you're done, I'll give you some abominations and Ghouls with you. They will act as distractions, while you take out those insects! In the meantime, I will prepare our attack for the elves' capital. Now get to it!"

"At once, Lord Arthas!" the three chorused.

"And one more thing, when you find Sylvanas, bring her to me. Alive."

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The Overmind honestly didn't expect the undead retreating this early, but it gave his buildings time to fully grow and burst out of the cocoons. He now had at least some defensive structures, with a Hatchery from where he could build reinforcements. Granted this planet had neither minerals, nor vespine gas, but the Zerg were flexible. Minerals were very simplified a lot of building material in one crystal. A lot of it could be turned via complex chemical and biological functions into biomass, when put into the hatchery. Vespine gas was normally used by the other two major races as a means to fuel their vehicles. Zerg used the chemicals for their more complex units, as for example the gas was needed to create the acid for the Roaches. The replacement for minerals, was very simple. The Zerg creep simply drained the earth underneath everything it needed. Granted this took a lot longer than conventional mining, but was better than hunting for creatures and cutting down trees for everything the Zerg needed. The Overmind needed his troops to defend the base and had no time to send them out for laboring tasks. Vespene gas was a little more tricky, but luckily the Zerebrat on this planet found a solution before he died to circumstances the Overmind doesn't know. The extractors simply drilled a tunnel into the earth, until they found a chamber filled with gas, oil or simply extracted for of the common minerals out of the earth, when nothing of the sort was available. It did limit the Overmind in rebuilding gas heavy units, as there wasn't much he could work with. Still, Zerglings had proven to be more than capable, when dealing with most of the undead, even the bigger ones. But in order for them to properly work, he needed to have the numbers advantage, so he ordered three Larvae to morph into six more Zerglings.

Luckily for him, he managed to get a short, stable connection to the Main Swarm. He was sure Sarah Kerrigan noticed this and would trace it back to this planet eventually, but she would need a lot of time to do this. The reason for the connection was to "download" the "blueprints" of the newly evolved Zerg units. He couldn't leave one of his champions at a disadvantaged starting point.

Speaking of his champion, he checked on her status and those of the other rangers. All of them were writhing in pain, their mouths open in silent screams. He could only imagine the pain of your own body being changed, muscles being torn apart and reconnect, bones being broken, entire organs replaced, all while being conscious. Not to mention the rewiring of the brain.

 _The enemy._ One of the Overlords showed the Overmind a picture of the approaching undead front. Ghouls on the front, Abominations in the back and those energy shooting Terrans, known as Necromancers, in the middle.

 _A formation. The Terran noticed that he cannot simply overwhelm us with numbers. However, it doesn't appear that he realized that my Roaches can move underground. The bigger enemies might severely damage my defenses if I don't deal with them quickly._

Upon the command of the Overmind, the Roaches "swam" in a matter of speaking through the earth of the Forest, carefully navigating between the strong roots. It would have been easy to just melt them, but a bunch of trees suddenly falling to the ground certainly would have gotten the attention of the enemy. Surprisingly, these roots went very deep into the ground, which meant the Roaches were slower than they were usual, digging their way towards the opposing army. As a result, said army came closer to the Zerg base, than the Overmind was comfortable with. However it turned out to be for the better. Once in position, the Roaches unborrowed and started attacking the larger corpses from behind. The feet of the first row were quickly melted away, causing them to fall over and crash onto the ground. The rest of the army stopped, turning around as fast as possible, losing formation in the process. Some of the Ghouls were at the edge of the hive cluster, when they turned around. The defensive Spine Crawlers started at this very moment impaling the first zombies. It was a mess, to put it shortly.

The lead necromancer tried to get everything in order, but his shouts were either ignored or overheard. The Zombies mindlessly slurred towards the Roaches, while being impaled from behind. Some of the necromancers tried to revive the fallen undead, while others began casting spells against the the insect army. It only got worse for them, as the Hydralisk used the confusion to let their poisonous projectiles rain down on the enemy. The foul skin of the undead was shredded, yet unless the damage was severe, they went on. The poison was pretty useless in this situation, as undead didn't have a blood flow to speak of, to deliver the poison into their entire system.

The abominations finally came into striking range of the Roaches, but only hit the earth. The Roaches had burrowed themselves before the huge butcher knives could do any damage. The monstrosities looked around confused, searching for the little bugs. A part of the army even turned around again in order to attack the visible insect force. The Hydralisks refocused their fire on the Ghouls upfront, quickly shredding meat and bones alike apart. In a matter of seconds, there was no small zombie left. By this point, many of the necromancers had started panicking and ran away, coming right in the way of the abominations, which just wanted to smash something. More than one necromancer died due to friendly stomping on this day.

On cue, the Roaches unborrowed and spat their acid right at the necromancer, who each died instantly. It was even worse for the surviving necromancer, since they couldn't bring back their fallen brothers and sisters. There were just no bones left! The abominations started working on the spine crawlers and did some decent damage. Only two were destroyed in the end. The Roaches had broken through and did attacked from behind. In the meantime, the Spine Crawlers had found a weak spot in their enemies, namely the heads. It turned out even Zombies needed a brain to function. As such, the attack was repelled before long, a few surviving necromancers running back to the undead camp.

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"USELESS!" Arthas shouted, striking the reporting necromancer down. Frostmourne absorbed the soul of the fallen, shining just a little brighter as if the blade was smiling. "You're all incompetent fools! How could you possibly lose an entire army to a few bugs?!" he shouted at the necromancers, who cowered in fear.

"Whatever. I'll deal with the bug problem personally. But not now. We have wasted enough time as it is. We need to capture the Sunwell. None of Sylvana's troops made it towards the capital. The elves will be in for quite a surprise. Now march!"

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Unknowingly to Arthas, the Overmind had a Roach burrowed inside the camp, listening in to the conversation. This posed a problem as there was an alternate way, which the enemy army could take in order to avoid the Zerg altogether. And although his army size was growing, the Overmind's troops were still not enough to stop the full force without a huge amount of luck. Also he would have trouble catching up to the enemy, since his faster and slower Zerg needed to stay together to pose any kind of threat. The elves needed to be warned and he knew exactly how. The admittedly small Nydus Network was still there even after all of those years. If he were to fake an attack, the elves would come to high alert. This didn't mean they would win, but it certainly would slow the undead down, until Sylvanas' and her Ranger's transformation was complete. The ground shook, as seconds later the Nydus worm came bursting through. Zerglings, Hydralisks and Roaches marched inside the tunnel, while another worm burrowed itself through the earth, until it appeared right in front of Silvermoon. Before the guards on duty could even do as much as shout an alarm, Zerglings began streaming out of the mouth and ran into the city. The guards were too slow to catch any of the first group.

"Close the gates! We're under attack!"

The Hydralisks and Roaches came in next with a second group of Zerglings. The snake like creatures began shooting their spines against the walls and towers, deliberately missing any living the creature. The Roaches actually walked slower than usual, in order to not get into the city fast enough, before the gates closed. They did some half hearted attacks against the gate, which turned out to be ineffective, since the gates were reinforced with a magic barrier. Luckily the arrows of the sharpshooters proved to be just as ineffective as the attacks of Zerg and so the Roaches "retreated" without a worry in the world. The Hydralisk were sent into cover, just in case. They continued their attacks, though less frequent than in the open.

Inside the city, all hell broke lose. Guards and Arcane Golems hunted the Zerglings through the plaza. In return the Zerglings ran around and did a lot of property damage, destroying everything that just happened to come into their way, be carts, market stalls or mini arcane Golems. A lot of children swore revenge on the bugs that day. From up on the walls, the archers now aimed against the Zerglings in the city, yet none of them dared to shoot, scared they might accidentally hit a citizen. Guards on Hawkstriders soon joined in on the hunt. The Birds had it easier catching up to the Zerglings, though the riders were still careful not to ran over any citizens.

"Damn it! Stop those monsters!" shouted the captain over his mount. "Get me a mage! Freeze those things to the ground! You!" He pointed towards a group. "Evacuate the citizens! And yo-o-o-o-ou!?"

The earth all of the sudden began to shake violently, only further increasing the panic among the citizens.

"Look!" Someone pointed in one direction, where the very earth began to pile up. Seconds later a Nydusworm broke through the street, causing rubble to fly through the air and rain down on everyone in proximity range. On a silent command from the Overmind, the Zerglings retreated into the Nydusnetwork, avoiding any guards that tried to block the way. Most of them were too stunned by the gigantic insect worm anyway. There were exceptions however.

"KILL THAT THING! DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!" The captain shouted on top of his lungs, trying to get his underlings to finally do something useful. But it was too late. The archers did their best from above, but at best their arrows scratched the gigantic worm's head, before it retreated into the ground again, leaving one huge hole. The Guard Captain cursed the sun, moon and stars, before getting his deputy. "Secure the area! Someone inform King Anasterian! And get me every single soldier, be they on or off duty to their stations! Send for the priests, see to it that the injured are tended to. And finally, send the citizens to their home! Until I know what's going, this entire area is on lockdown!"

"Yes sir!" The elf saluted, before barking orders to his own underlings.

The Captain turned his mount around and rode personally to the house of mages. Right now he needed to find out quickly just what happened, what those monsters were and where they came from. Normally he would have gone to the Rangers, but for some reason Sylvanas had yet to report back to Silvermoon. This and those monsters appearing out of nowhere didn't sit well with the captain at all.

W

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Pleased with the result, the Overmind fully returned his attention to the increase of his army, however a new problem had shown itself. Slowly but surely he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker, his control slipping away. He needed more Overlords than usual to control the other Zerg. It was all a strong indication that he was about to leave the world of the living once again. At least the transformation of the other elves would soon be completed. Their transformation wasn't as complex as the one Sylvanas was going through, but it was just as painful. All the Overmind needed to do now, was to make sure that she and her fellow rangers had an army to fight with, when they were reborn.

In the meantime Dragonhawk Riders were sent out from Silvermoon to scout the area for any signs of the monsters, which attacked the city only twenty minutes ago. However instead of finding any signs of the insects, they found something much more horrifying. Their better vision allowed them to see their precious woods dying in a straight line.

"What in the name of the sunwell is that?" one rider asked.

"Dark magic, no doubt." another one said. "Very potent dark magic."

Another rider came back to the duo, who had been flying above the area of where everything seemingly died for no reason.

"It is terrible, my brothers!" The High Elf shouted, looking like he had seen a ghost. "Abominations...skeletons….I saw the dead walking towards our great city."

"WHAT?!" the other two exclaimed.

"Are you sure?!"

The elf nodded. "I swear that is the very thing I saw. An army of the dead is marching to our great city. I saw both dead humans and elves heading this way! Wagons filled to the brim with corpses! Monsters that looked like they were stitched together from a multitude of corpses. Huge spider monsters…" The dragonhawk rider shook his head clear. "They're all lead by none other than Arthas, the human prince!"

"Arthas?!"

"Why…? Isn't he a paladin?! Are you sure about this."

"It doesn't matter!" The first one spoke up again. "Silvermoon needs to be warned. We need to head back quickly. At this rate they will arrive at the city gates in less than an hour. Our mages need to activate the barrier!"

The other two looked at each other, before nodding. The dragonhawks squaked, flying back to their home as fast as they possibly could.

W

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Exactly fifty minutes later, Arthas found yet again another surprise waiting for him. When he and his army arrived, not only were the gates closed, but a rain of arrows fell upon his army.

"What the-?! Lose formation! Spread out! Make it harder for them to hit you!"

Loyally they were, the undead did as Arthas told them, but the elven archers had a keen eye. Many of the lesser undead fell to the first volley, others had their bodies too heavily damaged to go anywhere.

"HOLD FIRE!" A voice from the top shouted. The prince of Lordaeron looked up and found an elf in similar uniform to Sylvanas standing on top of the walls.

"PRINCE ARTHAS! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU OR WHY YOU ATTACK US, BUT REST ASSURED YOU WON'T BREACH OUR WALLS!"

"FAMOUS LAST WORDS, ELF! IN FACT YOUR RANGER GENERAL SAID SOMETHING SIMILAR BEFORE SHE FELL TO MY SWORD!"

The lie seemed to have the desired effect. The elves looked at each other in shock and horror, hearing that their general has fallen.

"WHY YOU…! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST THE QUEL'DORAI, ARTHAS! I SWEAR THAT BY MY HONOR AS CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD! 100 THOUSAND GOLD FOR THEM WHO KILLS THE PRINCE! FIRE!"

Arthas cursed, stirring his skeleton horse around and taking cover inside the trees. This was not how things were supposed to proceed! Somehow the elves had learned about their attack and fortified their defenses.

"Damn it all! Sylvanas must have slipped a messenger through somehow!"

" _Not all is lost, my prince."_ The ghost of Kel'Thuzad appeared next to Arthas. _"The elves need time to activate the spell, which will make their walls impenetrable. We still have the numbers on our side! Bring me to the Sunwell and victory will be yours!"_

"That's right, the Sunwell. The source of all elven magic." Arthas nodded to Kel'Thuzad. For others it looked like he had just come up with an idea all by himself and also nodded to himself. "The Sunwell will probably be at the center of the city and heavily guarded. Necromancers!"

"Yes, my lord!" The mages immediately stood attention.

"Distract the elves. Throw fake attacks against the front gate. I will take most of the meatwagons through the woods and breach their city on the west side. As soon as their army leaves the walls to attack us, you will breach from this side."

"Understood, Lord Arthas!"

"Good. Now, let's move!" The death knight ordered. A quarter of his foot troops and three quarter of the meatwagons followed him, moving out of range and out of sight from the elven archers. Since the undead had the numbers advantage they would no doubt focus on getting the barrier up and then calling for the help from their allies. The scourge would make sure it never came to that.

It took Arthas and his army about half an hour, before they arrived at the western gates. His abominations helped out by moving the meatwagons themselves. The Prince of Lordaeron was getting impatient. So much had gone wrong this day, but it would end now. As expected there were only a couple of archers on the walls on this side. If they were quick, they could break through and finally invade the city.

"Meat wagons, fire!" On his signal, the wagons fired loads of meat against the walls and the gate. Despite what one might think, both walls and gate were being damaged by the projectiles. The elves reacted quickly, firing burning arrows against the siege weapons. But the prince was smart enough to position them out of range of the elves, who not only have better eyes, but also better bows and arrows. The elves normally didn't trade their precious wood from the Eversong Woods to anyone. As of getting an elven made bow, you had to be very high in their books.

Another salve hit the gates, make them move just a little bit. Arthas frowned, when he saw suddenly a blue light surrounding the doors.

"Elves and their damn magic." he muttered. "Forget the gates. Aim at the right wall!"

 _Fools. I know that it is harder to shield an entire wall, than just the gates. A ruler has to know such things._ The death knight thought to himself, smirking. The first pieces of rubble already crumbled down the wall and it was only a matter of time until they would be completely destroyed. His army patiently waited behind the meat wagons, in case the elves actually decided to come out and try to destroy the siege weapons.

"Only a few more shots. Reload faster! I want Silvermoon destroyed today!"

However, instead of hearing the sounds of his meat wagons firing, he heard liquid splashing, followed by hissing with steam floating in the corner of his eyes. Confused he turned his mount around. To the Death Knight's horror, he found his weapons deformed and destroyed in a pit of acid, his army just as confused as he was.

"Hehehehehe, surprised?" An unknown voice asked. Turning to the side, Arthas found several of those acid spitting insects coming out of the ground. This time there was an elf with them. No, not an elf, not really anyway. The elf man didn't wore any armor, instead he had similar chitin plating to those insects all over his body. He also had two additional pairs of arms growing out of his body, ending in huge claws instead of hands. The elf's hair had also become rather spiky, than smooth as Arthas was used from the elves. The death knight briefly wondered how the elf managed to handle the additional arms, but mentally shook the thought off. There were other things he had to do.

"Hmph, now that's something you don't see every day. And here I thought this invasion is going to be boring." Arthas gloated, pointing his sword at the enemy. "I am genuinely curious. What kind of magic is this?"

"No magic, I assure you." The elf took on a battle stands, his claws itching. "Say your last prayers, fallen Paladin. For today shall be your last day."

"Funny!" Arthas shouted. "I was about to say the same thing!" And with those words, the death knight charged at his opponent.


	3. Chapter 3

Arthas raised his sword Frostmourne, which glowed in a cold blue light, as if the sword itself was anticipating the fight. However, as the blade came down, the mutated elf simply ducked and used his new arms to duck himself into the ground and disappear in a matter of moments, too fast for the human eye to see. Arthas blinked a couple of time, looking around, but only found his forces fighting against those acid spitting insects.

"What is the meaning of this?! Are you elves too scared to fight me?!" he shouted into the air. As if to answer the death knight, the mutated elf came out of the ground, exactly where Arthas was standing, giving the death knight a perfect uppercut with one right arm, while the two others tried to slash through the armor, but ultimately failed because of its enchantments. Still, the fallen paladin staggered backwards, clasping his chin with his free hand.

"If you have taught us one thing human, than it is that there is no such thing as honor while fighting the likes of you."

Without another word, the elf disappeared again into a ground, not even leaving a hole, since he put the earth back over himself again. Arthas "tched", readying his trusty blade, while carefully moving above the ground. He expected another attack from below him, thus carefully eyed the earth below him. What he didn't expect was the elf to come out from behind him and charge at the human, claws outstretched. Just in time Arthas managed to turn around and block the attack with his sword, needing to hold it with both hands. All six hands were caught up in the rune blade, which cut through the tough skin of the zerg-elf. The latter hissed, as he could feel blood flowing out of his hand. Arthas smirked, but it disappeared rather quickly, when the human noticed that the blood wasn't read, but a yellowish green. The elf used the distraction to let go of the blade with one hand and punched the fallen prince straight into the face.

"GARGH! You bastard!" the death knight summoned his unholy magic and unleashed a blast of ice from his left hand. But Arthas underestimated the elf's ability to burrow himself and before a field of 100 yards was frozen, the Zerg had already disappeared into the underground once again. Cursing, Arthas shot barrages of ice to wherever he suspected his opponent to be underground, freezing Zerg, Undead and a poor squirrel in the process. In a matter of minutes hundreds of yards of elven land were frozen, covered in multiple centimeters of ice. The death knight panted after having used so much magic, much more than he had his entire life. Using the pause, the elf came back onto the surface, a mocking grin plastered onto his face.

"What is wrong, your highness? Not in the mood for a game of tag?" he asked in a mock time.

That was enough for Arthas to finally lose it. After being stolen of his victory over Sylvanas, after having lost many troops to the insect monsters, the elves having prepared the defenses of their capital city and finally being denied of destroying the walls of the elven city, the human was for the lack of better term fed up. He charged blindly at the elf, ignoring the warning voice of Kel'Thuzad. The mutated elf just stood there, seemingly waiting for the strike to come. In the last moment, the death knight was stopped, as he felt his leg burn, like he just stepped into a pit of lava. Looking down, he found his bare skin melting away, his boot already gone. One of the Roaches had freed itself from the main fight and attacked Arthas. In fact the undead were continuously losing ground against their insect opponents. Whenever one was too damaged, it would bury underground, only to come back later without as much as a few scratches on their carapaces, if any.

The death knight either didn't notice or care about this face. He killed of the Roach with a blast of green magic and ran towards his humanoid opponent again, only for said opponent to bury himself. The death knight came to a staggering halt. Before he found his footing again, the Zerg-Elf came out of the ground just behind Arthas and unleashed a barrage of slashes against Arthas' armor. However the only thing he managed to accomplish was destroy the cape and damage the metal a little. Whoever woved those spells into the armor was certainly no slouch, that much the elf realized. Completely annoyed, Arthas turned around and slashed the Zerg elf right through the chest. The elf was surprised, after all, his armor was supposed to hold against Terran projectile weapons as well as Protoss energy weapons. But then again, magic was a complete new concept to the Zerg, to which they still had to adapt to.

The elf jumped backwards, quickly checking on his connection to the rest of the swarm, which admittedly was still a new concept to him as well as the rest of the mutated elves. He was pleased to find out that his forces were doing exceptionally well for Azeroth with the only loss being the one Roach that the death knight took out. Since it would be hard to take out the fallen prince by his own, the mutated elf decide to play around a little more with the death knight, until most of his army was dead for good.

"I see, so that's how the prince of Lordaeron came to power." The elf jumped a few feet backwards. "No skill for the blade or any leadership whatsoever. Just a little, expensive toy, which allows him to play with a bunch of mindless puppets. If it weren't so many, you-"

The elf didn't get any further with his taunting. Arthas practically announced his attack with a fearsome battle cry. For the elf it was the same old play. Dug into the ground, this time wait a little for his wounds to recover from the slash and then come out at the most convenient moment. However, it seemed that the elves former brethren had other plans. A unit of cavalry came charging out of the city, seeing the enemies weakening each other. And although they weren't able to identify any losses on the side of the insects, the elves were confident they could defeat what was left.

The elf silently cursed, as his troops informed him of the coming attack. He even recognized a few high ranking Guards and Mages through the eyes of the Roaches. Knowing full well that these mages could unleash pure terror onto his Zerg, he gave the order to retreat to base. Burrowing themselves, he and the roaches were long gone, when the guards arrived, perfectly slaying the leftover undead, Arthas fumed, but even he knew, he was no match for an entire battalion of elves. Summoning his trusty steed, he retreated from the battlefield, before any of the elves could catch him.

"Not so fast, monster!" One brave elf chased after Arthas on one of those huge bird creatures. The death knight blocked the attack from the elf, which destroyed the elf's sword somehow. Before the elven woman knew what happened, Arthas had cut off her head and Frostmourne absorbed the soul of the elf. The body fell to the ground, only to get back up again, picking up it's head again. Later on one of the mages would burn the undead body to ashes.

"Sergeant, report!" The female lieutenant barked her orders.

"Yes, my lady. The undead have been successfully eliminated. The mages made sure to burn every single corpse, moving or not. Unfortunately we let Arthas escape. He managed to slay Private Leya, before retreating."

"Curses! She was always so short sighted. But nothing we can do about now. Any signs of those other monstrosities?"

"No, my lady. We searched the immediate perimeter, but found no sign of them. No doubt they dug their way underground back to wherever they came from."

"No doubt, indeed." The lieutenant nodded. "Sergeant, report this to the Captain immediately. The rest of you, back to your posts! The undead might try to attack again!"

W-A-R

Back at the small base, the elf and his Roaches returned, where other similar or in some cases completely differently mutated elves waited for him.

"This didn't go as planned, did it Zaath?" asked Veice, the last remaining mage of what was left of their once great army. The rest were either scattered across the land, in Dalaran or preparing the defenses of Silvermoon. The once High Elf woman, now sprouted very long tentacle like hair, along with two violette glowing orbs on her shoulders, almost like shoulder plates, only round. Her skinny body was now adorned with carapace armor, although it didn't make her look any less fragile than before. Her fingernails were now long claws and short spines grew out of the latter half of her arms.

Zaath shrugged in response. "All things considered, it could have been worse. But I have to admit, I severely underestimated the capabilities of whatever demonic force forged his armor. The Roach needed three shots, until it was finally gone."

"Still, you took way too many risks." Another Zerg-Elf walked towards the other two. This one was muscular like Zaath, but aside from his changed body, he still looked like a (more or less) normal elf man. That is until two blades came out of his arm and the elf carefully observed them.

"After noticing the lack of impact your attacks did, you should have let the Roaches kill the bastard. Now he's back with his main army, which will make it much harder to annihilate him."

Again Zaath shrugged. "Whatever Salen. But honestly, I'd rather not have to face the General, after "stealing" her kill."

At these words, everyone looked over to the glowing cocoon in the very middle of the base. The amount of pain their general must be going through, must be ten times as much as the other elves had gone through.

"How is she?" Zaath asked.

"Nothing has changed." Yet another elf answered.

"What do we do? Should we wait until she breaks out or should we attack the undead, while we have the chance?" One of the surviving privates asked.

"We attack." Veice positioned herself in front of the cocoon and placed a hand on it. "For all we know, it could take until the evening, before the transformation is complete. As the highest ranking member, next to Sylvanas, I take charge for the time being. Zaath, take your Roaches and do the same you did earlier with the siege weapons. Azinda, take half of us who are specialized in ranged attacks, as well as half of the Hydralisks and get rid of these annoying Gargoyles. Once we have the air cleaned, you will meet up with me. I'll lead a charge right at the front of the undead army. A small part of us will stay here and defend the base. Finally Kaonia, since you have adapted to the changeling DNA, you will go back to Silvermoon and inform them that we're not their enemies. With the help of our former brothers and sisters, we will be able to push the undead army out of our lands."

"Understood!" Every transformed elf saluted. Kaonia used her newfound abilities to transform back into her original state: Long red hair, orange-like skin and her normal ranger armor. She even managed to replicate her sword and bow. Veice briefly wondered if those actually worked, but shook the thought off. She could study their newfound biology later. For now, they had to bring the dead to the rest.

"You have your orders! Move out!"

W-A-R

In the strategy room of the palace, High King Anesterian and his highest ranking military members who were not dead or occupied in the fights, as well as some of the highest mages and priests stood around a map of Silvermoon, discussing the recent events.

"It appears those insects and the undead are enemies." The captain of the guard reported. "Our scouts inform us of a large force heading towards the main undead army. We have confirmed reports of said insects protecting our western gates. And one more thing, my King. I have managed to scrape together a report, if you want to call it that, about the first wave of the insects. So far I only heard about property damaged. No citizen was really injured during the attack, aside from a boy who was run over."

"Curious. It almost sounds like this attack was staged in order to warn us about the incoming invasion." The High King commented. "Almost as if they are sentient creatures."

"Surely, someone must be controlling these." Aleron, one of the mages suggested. "There can be no other explanation. Of course the questions that follows is, why is this whoever is controlling these helping us?"

"I think we should worry about the shield first, before we look into whatever those monsters are or their motives for this matter." Another mage spoke up. "I admit I am curious as well, but the safety of our city should come first."

"Indeed." The High King nodded. "The preparations are going as planned I presume?"

"Of course. In only three hours, our mages will create the barrier. As long as the Sunwell is with us, no one is going to break through. Until then we have to continue to hold our defenses."

"I have the highest expectations of our troops. However, I find it concerning we haven't heard about Sylvanas. I guess Arthas spoke the truth. He really did slay her and with her most of our rangers." The King allowed a sigh to escape his old lips. "A tragedy. One we will make sure to avenge one day."

Just then a guard ran into the room. He was out of breath and looked like he was going to collapse any second. The others were startled by the sudden intrusion, but let him speak none the less.

"My King! One of Sylvana's rangers just arrived here in Silvermoon! She claims that Sylvanas and is alive, along with a small part of her troops!"

Immediately everyone's eyes lit up. "These are great news! Send her in immediately!"

The guard nodded and made a gesture with his spear. No one recognized the returning ranger, as she was obviously a low ranking member.

"My King, the High Mages, Captain." Kaonia saluted. "I am afraid you won't be happy with what I am about to say. Surely you must have noticed the insect army, which is currently fighting the undead."

"Indeed we have." Aleron spoke with a raised eyebrow. "Do you have any information about those monsters?"

"The good news I can bring you, is that they are on our side."

"On our side? Explain yourself." The High King demanded.

"I need to ask you to let me finish my report, before you judge anything I said."

Kaonia quickly gave them a summary report about the first sightings of the undead, the raided villages and how Arthas used a strange weapon to raise and control the undead, continuously marching through their beloved land Quel'Thalas.

"Seeing as death was imminent, we prepared for our final stand. Sylvanas send messengers to Silvermoon in hopes of warning you, before it was too late. In the end, they all were intercepted by the undead and killed.

After another devastating attack on our position, we knew there was no way we would survive the next one. However it was at this moment that Arthas' power came to work against him."

"How so?" The King asked. "Did he lose control of some of his minions?"

The ranger shook her head. "No, he brang a being back to live, which strength rivaled those of the most powerful forces on Azeroth."

Everyone's eyes widened at those words.

"It was a being simply called the Overmind. The Overmind once was the leader of the insects, known as the Zerg. Having limited time in the world of the living and for some reason feeling "generous" in it's own way, it offered the General a deal of some sort."

"A deal? Forgive me if I sound skeptical, but to me it sounds like it was just looking for a way to come back permanently. After all, you said it just could stay here temporarily. Isn't that right?" The King asked.

"The General believed the same. She didn't tell any of us of what she was doing, but she accepted the deal, giving her full control of the Zerg. The insect creatures you saw outside the walls."

As soon as those words left her mouth, there were outrageous cries among the room. Everyone seemed to have it out for the ranger, that is until Anesterian shot a small fire ball into the air. The resulting explosion silenced everyone.

"Explain yourself this once ranger." The King demanded in a calm tone.

After catching herself, the ranger continued, though she now began to eye everyone carefully. "Apparently for centuries there has been a small nest of the Zerg deep underground. It is hard to explain what happened next, but the best way to describe it is that we all...have been changed."

"Changed in what way?"

The former high elf looked down on her hands, a sad sigh escaping her. "In order to control the Zerg, we had to become Zerg as well."

She looked up again. "Every surviving ranger, including myself, is no longer a Quel'Dorei. The only reason I still look like the high elf is because of my new abilities."

"New abilities?" the captain couldn't help but ask.

To answer this question, Kaonia changed right in front of everyone. Her weapons, clothes, and armor seemed to grow into her, while her hair seemed to melt together, until it was back to the dreadlocks.

"By the sunwell…" One elf breathed out. Another hide tried and failed miserably to hide his blush.

"I have only this to say, my King. We will continue to fight alongside the Quel'Dorei until every last undead is slain. Right at this moment our forces are attacking the undead positions. If you send your troops now, we will be able to throw back the undead. However, if you do not trust us, we won't hold it against you."

" **I WILL KILL YOU ARTHAS!"**

Everyone, even the old High Elf King, jumped startled the shout of the voice, which they all knew all too well.

 _It seems the General's transformation is complete._

W-A-R

Pain...the only thing Sylvanas had felt for what appeared like an eternity, but was only a couple of hours. Something broke her bones, tore her flesh apart and rearranged it like a sick little puzzle game. Her body twitched and jerked, her mouth let out an unhearable scream, until she wasn't even allowed to move anymore. Her muscles wouldn't listen to her anymore. She had no choice but to endure her body being violently changed, as she floated in whatever was keeping her alive. Those simple words didn't even come close to what she had experienced. But then the pain subsided. She could feel her body listening to her once again. At first her fingers twitched. The she moved an arm. Another one. Her legs. Finally she moved her upper body, opening her eyes. She was surrounded by flesh and liquid. She barely recognized it as her protective cocoon, as it was in her way. Her way of getting revenge on that bastard of a prince. Channeling all her rage, she used her newfound psionic powers and destroyed her prison from the inside. From an outside perspective it just looked like the cocoon exploded. Masses of creep, as well as nearby Zerg units were thrown away by the impulse. Sylvanas let out an immense shout, one she was aware the entirety of the elven land must have heard.

" **I WILL KILL YOU ARTHAS!"**

Her mind immediately reached out to every Zerg being on Azeroth, suppressing their free will and enforcing hers upon everyone. And right now she didn't want anything more than to give a certain prince the most slow and painful death she could possibly imagine.

The other former rangers stared at their General, no their Queen, in both awe and horror. She had the regular carapace armor they all had. Spines grew out of her arms and legs, giving her an even more dangerous look. She had two huge wings coming out of her bag, as well as a tail, which ended in a stinger of some sort. Her hair had turned into the normal dreadlock look, although she wasn't wearing any sort of hood anymore.

Without even acknowledging the presence of her former comrades, now subjects, Sylvanas bend down, outstretched her wings and leaped off into the air, flying where her army was fighting the undead and Arthas.

W-A-R

Arthas let out a fierce battle cry, stabbing one of those hound like insects in the head, from the top of his horse. Of course he had heard the cry and no doubt it came from Sylvanas. Finally he would be able to kill her for good and with her those insects with which the elves hoped to protect their precious lands. He had concluded that as a last resort, Sylvanas had used some sort of forbidden magic to summon those beasts and transform herself and her troops into the things they now where. No doubt a forbidden secret weapon of the elves the General dug out from somewhere. But it wouldn't be enough. His army, despite all losses, still had the advantage in numbers. The Ghouls and Abominations were great distractions, while his Nerubians and Necromancers shot down the insects in a barrage of projectiles and spells. Hew himself, as well as the Gargoyles that hadn't been shot down by the snake like creatures, were busy protecting the meat wagons from the spiky elf and his army of cockroaches. Unfortunately for him, their ability to burrow on the spot made it difficult for him to actually kill them. More often than not, he had to use the magic that was given to him by Frostmourne.

Another tactic he used was summoning masses of skeletons and sending them against the snake like creatures, so they were to busy to use their own ranged attacks against his army. To counter the strategy a mage elf summoned blizzard after blizzard, hitting both Undead and Insects alike. But something else which was annoying him to a great deal, were the elves who shot poisonous arrows out of their arms, as if they had crossbows attached to their arms. Right now the only thing preventing them for shooting key units were the masses of Zombies the death knight send their way.

He even went as far and summoned Ziggurats around his position. The huge towers did their fair share of work, but were already heavily damaged with the crystals flying unsteadily in the air, a sign of the towers soon collapsing if not repaired quickly. Something he couldn't do at the moment. Arthas just cut down another one of those insects and wanted to turn his attention towards one of those annoying elves, when he heard a battle cry, which he became all too familiar in these past couple of days. An excited grin appeared on his face, thinking he could finally destroy the elves for good. Of course he was expecting a completely different Sylvanas Windrunner. He just didn't expect her to come down charging from the sky.


	4. Chapter 4

Arthas barely managed to raise his sword, before Sylvanas slammed with her feet into him. Her feet were now claws, which tried to grab the accursed rune-blade. However, the protective aura made the steel feel so cold, Sylvanas had to fly back into the sky and let go of the blade. Arthas didn't have the time to think, as the General came charging back down. The Death Knight tried to block the strike again, but Sylvanas carefully aimed her claws against the shoulders of the fallen paladin, perfectly knocking him off his horse. The air was forcefully pressed out of the lungs of the human, as he desperately gasped for air. Sylvanas didn't plan on giving him the time to do so. She landed right on his shoulders, pinning him to the ground and started scratching his face with her claws. In retaliation Arthas summoned his unholy magic and blasted the mutated queen away. Said queen caught herself in mid-air and landed on the ground, only a few feet away. Arthas, finally having a chance to catch his breath was ready to mock the former elf, but had no chance to do so. Sylvanas didn't appear to be in the mood for talking, as she charged forward once again, claws outstretched. Her opponent managed to parry the attack and counterattack directly after. The Zerg Queen got a nasty cut on her left arm, which caused her to jump back.

This time it was Arthas who charged at the former ranger, but the woman still had a few surprises left for the prince. She began charging her psi energy into her right claw, a small ball of energy formed into her palm. Arthas saw this, but scoffed. After all, what damage could a small ball of energy possibly do to him?

Sylvanas threw the ball at her opponent. Upon contact, the small psi-ball exploded throwing a screaming Arthas away. The death knight hit the wheel on the wagon, but else was okay. His armor absorbed most of the damage, but Sylvanas knew that even the best crafted armor could only take so many hits, before it breaks apart. The boot missing leg was proof enough for this. Arthas barely managed to dodge another attack of that kind, by rolling to the side. The blast completely obliterated the meat wagon, destroying it into thousands of tiny pieces. Ignoring the splinters on his face, Arthas shot barrages of ice from his gloved hand, before charging at his opponent again. The Zerg woman simply jumped into the air, dodging the projectiles and charged down in a vertical angle. Sword and claws clashed together, blue sparks flying out of the unholy weapon. Sylvanas followed up her attack by unleashing a series of attacks from her feet. Arthas would have found it laughable, if not for the face, that he had a hard time defending himself against those. He didn't get a chance to counterattack whatsoever and it looked like the woman was never going to run out of breath.

Fortunately for him, one of his Nerubians noticed the situation he was in and helped him out by throwing one of the sticky nets to Sylvanas. The Zerg-Queen shrieked in surprise, hitting the ground rather hard. She desperately flapped with her wings, trying to get the net off her body. Arthas chuckled at her desperate attempts, approaching the woman. He figured he might as well kill her fast. Her soul being trapped inside Frostmourne for all eternity should be punishment enough.

UNFORTUNATELY for him, Sylvanas had yet to run out of tricks. She let out a burst of psi-energy, which not only caused the net to be ripped apart, but also threw everything in close proximity, including a certain death knight, a few feet away. Arthas growled, getting back up to his feet, only to be blasted away by one of Sylvanas' psi-bombs. The former elf didn't stop there. She immediately charged at Arthas yet again, who in return rolled out of her way, before getting up and counterattacking with a green blast. Sylvanas was hit straight into the chest, she cringed a little but didn't slow down. In fact she even flew faster, as the attack seemed to only have made her angrier than before.

W-A-R

While Sylvanas, Arthas and their respective armies were fighting it out, Anasterian and his loyals watched the fight going on from afar with Kaonia, who was bound with magical blue glowing shackles.

"And I thought my wife was scary, when she gets angry." the captain of the guard muttered to himself, but his King heard him none the less. The over 3000 year old elf couldn't help but smile for a split second, before said smile was once again replaced by a serious frown. Sylvanas and her troops looked truly terrifying, some even absurd. They gave the invading army a hard time, especially with these insect like creatures, these...Zerg. It took multiple undead in order to take out even one of them. Though from the looks of things, this strategy didn't appear to be a problem for the unholy army, as the masses of rotten flesh just kept coming and coming with no end in sight.

A dragonhawk rider flew from the woods back to the city and landed only a couple of steps away on the wall. The rider quickly jumped off his mount, giving it a quick pet, before stepping in front of the old high elf.

"My King, I'm afraid the undead army is at least thrice the size of what we originally believed. They set up a base in the mountains, which is only lightly fortified."

"They weren't expecting a counterattack, I assume." the king mused.

"I have even more dire news. Everywhere the undead went, the land is dead. The earth is black, as if there had been a fire. Trees a practically non existent in a straight line, the Elrendar has been poisoned, nod doubt when the walking dead went through it...it is a disaster, my King."

"...I figured such a thing would happen, but hoped against it despite all odds."

"Finally, I believe I have found the nest of the insects...I mean the Zerg."

"You did?"

"Yes, they're exactly where she has told us." the rider pointed at the former elf. "But it is strange my king."

"Strange? What exactly do you mean?"

"Well, for starters the nest...it appears to be alive. There are buildings, made of flesh, which appeared to be breathing! And then there is the land around the structures. It is covered by some kind of violette, grey, fleshy substance. I think I saw one of those dog like creatures eating from it. Speaking of the creatures, there are only a few of them left at their nest, along with some...changed elves." the rider finished his report.

"Hmmm…" Anasterian focused on the armies once again. Sylvanas and Arthas were still fighting it out. From the looks of things, Sylvanas had the upper hand, but Arthas didn't appear like he was planning on giving up anytime soon. The Zerg were holding the undead back, but didn't win any ground whatsoever. There were just too many enemies for the insects to fight. And if what the dragonhawk rider said was true, then they would be defeated eventually. However, if the elves were to help the Zerg with their magic…

Anasterian looked over to their current prisoner, who looked back at him with a neutral expression.

W-A-R

"Damn it, woman! When I'm done with you, you'll be lying on my feet begging for me to end your life." Arthas pointed his sword at the Zerg Queen, who could only laugh, her voice somehow echoing.

"Oh really?" the queen retorted, flaring her wings. "I wonder...from what I have seen, unlike your minions, YOU still feel pain and experience exhaustion. Face it, slaughterer, your time ends now!"

"No, my time is just beginning!" With those words the two clashed for the thousandth time for the day. Despite everything none of the two combatants seemed to be able to gain the upper hand for too long. For the most part it appeared that Sylvanas was dictating the battle, but Arthas was holding his ground fairly well, all things considered. As for their respective armies, it looked a little a different. Slowly but surely the Zerg were being pushed back by the undead, as their reinforcements didn't come in as fast as that of the undead, not to mention the lack of resources resulting in their reinforcements being very small in numbers. Sylvanas and Arthas both were oblivious to that fact, but not their direct underlings. Sylvanas Ranger's tried their best to position their forces in a way they did the most damage, while sustaining the least amount themselves. The necromancers in the meantime just went all out, sending their undead forces right into the enemy army, not caring how many fell. They had enough reserves to build a ladder on the walls of the elven city, all around, reaching to the top and still have enough to overwhelm the elves inside the city.

What no one was expecting, was for the elves to come out themselves! Literally out of nowhere, huge glaives were shot into the lines of the undead. Both Zerg and Undead, even Sylvanas and Arthas stopped dead in their tracks and watched as more and more Glaives were shot into the Undead lines. A stray shot hit a group of Zerglings, perfectly eliminating them. Sylvanas forgot Arthas for a moment and focused her will onto her servants, ordering them to scatter, so the friendly fire wouldn't be so severe. Just in time too, as the elves followed up their initial attack with heavy magic attacks, mainly by manipulating the weather and letting both lightning and ice rain down on the undead army. Some Zerg didn't make it out in time and got either fried or impaled by ice spikes. Sylvanas cursed, as she herself need to take cover from the heavy magic fire. The same went for Arthas, who quickly mounted his undead horse, before charging in the opposite direction. As soon as he was out of immediate danger, he turned around and observed the battlefield. His troops had regrouped on the nearby hills and were now waiting for him to give the order to attack again. However he hesitated and with good reason.

The elves had come out of their city and didn't hold back. Numbers are one thing, but if Sylvanas had proven anything, than that the elves should never be underestimated.

"I hope this is worth the trouble." Arthas muttered to the ghostly form of Kel'Thuzad.

"This is rather troublesome. With the strength of those monsters, the elves might be able to hold us off long enough to activate their shield." the ghost stated. "Right now, time is not on our side."

"I was getting sick of these woods anyway. It looks like strategy is completely out of the window for now. Attack them. Attack until none of them is left standing, be it insect or elf. For the Lich King!" the death knight shouted and charged in front of his army. His remaining siege weaponry opened fire at the insects, forcing them to open up their formation. Of course the elves and insects saw an opportunity to open fire while his army charged down the hill and many undead fell to arrows, magic and the poisonous spines, but Arthas didn't care anymore. Originally he wanted to win this battle as efficient as possible, proving his tactical genius to the demons. But certain circumstances forced him to use the most common tactic of the undead, namely shoving dead meat down the enemy's throat.

With her Zerg, Sylvanas grit her teeth, seeing the masses of undead walking through her home, as if it belonged to them. She knew that nothing short of a Terran Battlecruiser would be able to stop this army, before it reached the city borders. Her understanding of magic was far from the best, but even she knew that it took time to activate the barriers and by then the city might be already flooded. Evacuation was out of the question, there was just no time for this.

As the undead came close enough, Sylvanas own close combat units engaged the undead. She herself stood back, trying to come up with a solution. She wondered if the mages could possibly attempt to produce a temporary barrier of some sort, one with which they could hold back the undead for a small amount of time and use the time to prepare a counterattack of some sort. But Sylvanas dismissed the idea pretty quickly. There were just too many to contain them without a few good choke points. No, what they needed was a weapon of mass destruction to take as many as possible out at once. She wondered about her new psi-abilities. She had yet to use any, aside from her control over the hive. The Queen of Blades had quite a few of them after all, some of them very powerful. But even if Sylvanas had all of those they still wouldn't be enough. She clenched her fist. Was there really nothing she could do?

She had another idea: magic again, but this time her own. Every elf had a connection to the Sunwell, thus inheriting its magic. Of course not everyone could use it, herself included. At least not after her transformation. Maybe she could summon a blizzard that was huge enough to cover an area as big as the enemy army or at least close enough. But there was the thing, Sylvanas never learned any magical formula-

Her eyes widened. Her connection to the Sunwell! If she tapped into the seemingly unlimited power and activated her new psi-powers, who knew what would happen. There was a way to find out however.

Not wasting another second, Sylvanas extended her wings and jumped high into the air, until she had a good overview of the battlefield. Without even informing the other former rangers, Sylvanas shifted her focus away from her army and towards the Sunwell, which wasn't hard at all. With her now evolved brain, she probably could spot the sunwell in a 100 mile radius, because of the power it gave off. Her former heritage as a high elf made it even easier tapping into the energy.

It almost turned out to be her demise. The second her mind fully connected to the Sunwell, both her spirit and body were overwhelmed. Her wings went stiff, causing her to come closer and closer to the ground. Luckily Sylvanas was a very disciplined person and managed to regain control over her body and span her wings once more. With heavy flaps, the Azeroth Queen, managed to get back into the air, all the while she tried to keep her connection to the Sunwell. It already had consequences on the battlefield, as she lost control of singular Zerg units, which attacked anyone and anything nearby.

 _The power...is overwhelming! Is...is this how a god feels? It is like I could destroy the world with a snap of my fingers! Arthas...I hope you're watching._

Arthas was indeed watching. He had been wondering what was going on with Sylvanas, when she dropped out of the sky, only to fly up again. At first he thought she was surveilling the area, looking for a strategic advantage. But then all of the sudden, Sylvana's entire began to glow in a blue light.

"Magic? When does that witch ever run out surprises?" Arthas wondered aloud. "Spread out! It looks like she's trying to cast a blizzard spell!"

The undead army complied, taking on a loose formation. Unfortunately for them they might as well have been a gigantic, rotten, meatball at this stage. With a fearsome shriek, similar to one of a banshee, Sylvanas stretched out her arms and shot gigantic bolts of lightning out of her fingers. The air was immediately filled with the smell of burned meat and wood. Some of the trees caught fire, but the elves were too shocked and horrified to care at the moment. Some immediately recognized their former general, based on her facial features.

"W-what power…" one of the mages whispered.

"Is that...Sylvanas?"

"If so, then what happened to her?"

"No, no, no, no, NO! This can't be happening!" Arthas exclaimed as all around him, his troops were turned into nothing more but smoldering ash. The necromancers and cultists who could still think for themselves, were already retreating, while at the same time the brain dead Ghouls, Zombies and Abominations were burned one after another!

"Curse you, Sylvanas! Curse you and your damned insects!" he shouted, swinging his sword as if he was a little boy again.

"My Lord!" The disembodied voice of Kel'Thuzad shouted. "It is not safe here! You need to retreat!"

"Retreat?" Arthas echoed.

"Look around! Sylvanas has wiped out most of your army already and the rest will soon follow! We will need to rethink our strategy and resupply our troops."

"Ngh… you haven't seen the last of me, damn elves!"

Arthas turned his skeleton horse around and gallopped away, swearing under his breath the entire time.

W-A-R

As soon as Sylvana's claws touched the ground again, she almost collapsed. However, sensing his Queen's distress, a Zergling quickly ran up to her and allowed her to support herself on it. It didn't take too long for the rest of her troops to arrive, her mage advisor Veice being one of the first ones.

"My Queen, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Veice. A little exhausted, nothing to worry."

"Nothing to worry about?!" Veice shouted on top of her lungs. "Are you aware of what you have done?! No one, NO ONE has ever used the energies of the Sunwell in this matter! With all due respect, I'm surprised we are all still alive! Heck, I expected you to explode like a nuclear missile! It is a miracle that nothing bad happened! What were you thinking?! You have never received any proper training in handling the mana streams, know any magical formula or-"

"Be quiet." Sylvanas ordered and Veice had to comply, whether she wanted or not.

"What I did was risky, I know, but it was also necessary."

"Then why didn't you leave it to me?" the mage asked.

"Because, quite frankly, I am stronger than you." Sylvanas replied. "The energies of the Sunwell would have destroyed your very soul and by extension damaged the Hive Mind beyond repair."

Veice lowered her head. "I understand."

"Excuse me, my Queen." Zaath approached the two talking Zerg woman. "I hate to interrupt, but King Anasterian is on his way. It looks like he wants to talk to you. Oh and he looks really agitated."

Just as the words left his mouth, the sound of multiple horses galloping could be heard in the distance. Sylvanas let go of the Zergling and ordered it to stay behind her. The other two humanoid Zerg followed the Ling behind their leader, who folded her wings in order to look less menacing. Just in time, as Anasterian and twenty royal guardsmen and women, clad in their red shining armor.

The elf king's eyes widened upon seeing the newly transformed former ranger General in all her glory. Only the centuries of experienced helped the old king to keep his composure.

"Sylvanas Windrunner, as much as I would like to say that I am glad to see that you're still alive. However, given your recent changes...I am truly at a loss for words."

Sylvanas chuckled a little. "I understand High King. If I would be in your place, I would have already put an arrow between the eyes of whatever was standing in front of me."

"Hmm. Well the fact that you helped us in the battle, is the sole reason you're not in chains. One of your... associates already gave us a brief explanation as to what happened, but I'd like to hear of what happened from your mouth, before I decide on what to do with you."

"Very well. Then let me give you my last report as your General."

And so Sylvanas told the High King of what transpired these past days. From the beginning of the invasion, to Dar'Khan's betrayal and Arthas's cursed rune blade, which could bring back the dead. This turned out to be his damnation, as it brought back an otherworldly spirit, too strong for the death knight to control. Said spirit turned out to be the now dead leader of an insect race called the Zerg. Sylvanas left out the part of the Overmind being from another world and basically everything that's not on Azeroth right now, as it would sound probably a little too fantastic at this point in time. Not to mention the High King looked like he was ready to incinerate Sylvanas the instant she said something wrong.

After she was done with her explanation, the high elf and his guards for that matter had expressions on their faces that could only be described as a mixture of fear, disbelief and curiosity. Eventually the old elf shook his head, as if he was trying to clear his thoughts.

"Every time I think I have seen everything in life…" the elf said more to himself. "I...this…" The elf took in a deep breath. "Sylvanas...I am not sure whether to call your actions foolish or courageous. I am thankful for what you have done for our people. However…"

"You cannot let us stay here." the former Ranger finished for her former King. "We are too much of a threat. A new species, your general having trust an entity that you haven't even seen and might have dubious intentions at best?" Sylvanas let out a chuckle. "I knew exactly what I was getting into by accepting this offer."

The woman turned around, gazing at the beautiful capital, which stood strongly right at the end of a huge line of dead earth. It almost appeared like their lands had gotten away with a scar. "I can tell you how much I and everyone else, we all still love our home. Each of us will give away our lives without a second thought for every citizen in Silvermoon.

She turned around again, facing the King. "But that doesn't convince you, does it? And it especially won't convince the public."

"Sylvanas…" Anasterian shook his head. She had taken his words out of his mouth, so to speak. He sighed.

"I'm sorry." he said with closed eyes.

"Don't be." she smiled.

"Alright." The King straightened up once again, his face serious again. "Since you decided to sell your loyalty to an unknown creature and inevitably not only change you, but also those under your command, you force my hand. However, given today's actions, you and your people will be spared from the death penalty. Instead I shall exile you and your kin out of the elven lands. Take your army and never return."

Despite what the High King just said, Sylvanas couldn't help but smile. "You know the saying, Anasterian." she purposely said his first name without any title. "Never say never. I promise you, one of those days we will prove ourselves and be welcomed home once again. Until then, I bid you farewell." Spreading her wings, the Queen of the Zerg leaped into the air and flew away. The ground forces swiftly followed her as fast as possible and soon no Zerg could be seen around the capital. As for the base, it would either be burned down by the elves or stay there. However, it had long stopped spreading creep and producing larvae. Drones were loaded up to the Overlords and flew away. Nydusworms dug themselves back into the grounds, until they were needed again.

" _Sooo, what now?"_ Zaath asked into the hive mind.

" _Now? We hunt down every single undead and make sure they stop haunting the woods."_ Sylvanas answered.

" _I am sorry my Queen, but with our current numbers we cannot take on Arthas' army."_ Veice stated.

" _That I am aware of. I have already decided on our base of operation. Tell me, have any of you heard about the Undercity in Lordaeron?"_


	5. Chapter 5

Two weeks later, close to the border of the elf territory. Sylvanas and her troops successfully infiltrated the human lands. Aside from a few skirmishes, the Zerg did not encounter the undead army. Now in hostile territory, Sylvanas send out her scouts and what the information they acquired would turn out to be both troubling and promising.

W-A-R

Through the eyes of her Zergling, Sylvanas saw the admittedly impressive undead army. Somehow Arthas has managed to get a solid lead, his army already standing in front of the mountain pass, which would lead to the western lands. The Zergling hid in the bushes, sneaking as silently as possible through the woods until it arrived at the front, where it found Arthas talking to a demon.

"Why was I ordered back in the first place? I could have easily taken the capital!" Arthas shouted.

"Easily? Then why were you forced to run in the first place?" the demon asked in a mock tone.

"A tactical retreat." Arthas boasted. "Wars aren't won by simply attacking the enemy over and over, dreadlord. I was planning on repositioning my troops, but before I had the chance to strike again, you called us back. Thanks to you, the elves have had time to fortify their defenses and activated the shield around their capital."

"Don't speak in that tone with me, youngling! The fact is that you have failed! Now we need to look for another source to-"

"Actually Tichondrius," a new voice echoed through the valley. Everyone, even the zombies, looked for the source of the voice, until in a blast of energy another demon appeared. "The master is not happy with YOU." the new demon pointed at the other one.

"What?! What are YOU doing here?! And what do you mean the master is not happy with ME?!" Tichondrius shouted enraged. Arthas appeared to be curious as to what was going on.

"Simple. You didn't help in the invasion of Kel'Thalas. After giving a full report to Lord Archimonde, he was...let's say disappointed to hear that you did absolutely nothing to help with the invasion. In his opinion, your power would have been enough to turn the tides against the elves."

"What?! But I-"

"FURTHERMORE" the new demon interrupted Tichondrius "you're to report back to the master immediately. And personally, I wouldn't let him waiting, if I were you."

Tichondrius scowled over to Arthas and the other demon, before summoning a portal and disappearing through it.

"Now then, Lord Arthas." the demon turned towards the fallen prince "while the seizure of the Sunwell was a failure, it doesn't mean that all is lost, far from it in fact. However with this new enemy against us, we have to reevaluate our situation."

"Reevaluate?" Arthas echoed. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I will explain on the way. However, something you should be aware of is that a rather large group of humans, as well as an unknown number of orcs, have left this continent."

"They did? Hah, as if they could run away from the scourge." Arthas mocked.

"The humans and orcs aren't of concern for now. A ship awaits your arrival in Lordaeron. Once you've made the necessary preparations, this ship will…" And that was as much as Sylvanas could listen to, as the whole undead army began marching on a silent command. She ordered the Zergling to take a detour back to the main army.

Right now the Zerg have stationed themselves around 50 miles away from the border to Kel'Thalas with the Zerglings scouting the surrounding area, looking for threats and anything useful for the swarm. Veice, who had listened in with Sylvanas, approached the leader of the Azeroth Swarm.

"My Queen, this is perfect. With Arthas gone, the defenses in Lordaeron will be significantly weakened. And if we dig a tunnel to the underground city, we can take the remaining defenders by surprise and the city will be ours."

"Indeed." Sylvanas nodded, stroking her chin. "But we cannot go immediately. Our army quite frankly moves too fast. Even if Arthas doesn't need any food supplies and his army works without sleep, it will still take him a week, maybe even two until he is ready for departure. Until then we cannot afford to show ourselves to Arthas. He might retaliate."

"What should we do until then?" asked the former mage.

"I have an idea." Zaath appeared from the underground, surprising no one. Ever since they left their home, the former elf enjoyed "swimming" through the earth with the Roaches. He even tried to play a prank or two in order to pass the time, but thanks to the hivemind, everyone was aware of where exactly he was at all times.

"The scouts reported that despite all odds, there are a rather large amount of surviving humans in this land. Most of them have come together and are now lead or rather threatened by various bandit groups. They're more of a ragtag group of individuals than an army, but they might prove useful in some way or other. If anything, we could use them as cannon fodder."

"Is this really worth the trouble?" Veice asked. "I say we look for a way to stock up our own supplies. If humans survived the onslaught, so might have the wildlife, not to mention those annoying Murlocs." Veice scrunched up her face in disgust.

"Why don't we kill two birds with one stone?" Sylvanas suggested.

"Huh?" The other two infested elves looked at their leader confused.

Sylvanas looked over to the drones, which were currently digging in the ground, probably instinctively looking for minerals.

"As for combat capabilities, the humans are useless to us. However if we keep them alive, Arthas will "recruit" them sooner or later. The only reasonable thing to do is kill them and collect their biomass for future use."

"My Queen. Isn't that a bit extreme?" Veice asked a little aghast at such a suggestion. He could see the logic behind this, but the elves and humans had been allies ever since the second war.

"Extreme? Maybe." Sylvanas admitted. She closed her eyes and thought about her own suggestion for a moment, before nodding to herself. "But it is necessary. Anasterian will be too busy dealing with the damage the undead did to Kel'Thalas. As for Dalaran, they haven't done anything so far for the people here or for our people for that matter, so I doubt we'll have to fear about retaliation from them."

"If I may suggest" the male infested stepped up "why don't we simply infest the humans and their homes?"

"And what would that accomplish?" Sylvanas asked.

"Simple. Long term benefit. I went over the memories of the swarm and found out that it doesn't take much to turn human houses into makeshift Hatcheries. While they do not have the same capabilities as normal ones, they can give birth to infested Terrans, without the need of additional outside resources. While it wouldn't solve our resource problem, we would be able to get cheap troops, which are arguably better fighters than the undead."

"Wait, please hear me out." Veice intervened. "Do we really need to do this to the humans? My Queen, I know you're feeling resentment towards the humans and for good reasons," she thought about the mages of Dalaran and how they did not aid them. It especially hurt her, since she studied there for many years "but isn't this basically what Arthas has done, if we infest or kill them?"

"It is," Sylvanas replied without losing a second. "I will be the last person to deny that this will make us no better than the slaughterer. But if we're to win this war, we have not much of a choice. Sooner or later we will end up infesting not only humans but other species as well. As I already said the humans in these lands are lost one way or the other. We either kill or infest them now or they will end up as Arthas' soldiers."

"I see." Veice nodded but didn't look too happy about the situation. "Forgive me for being so brash my Queen. You are of course absolutely right. We have no choice, but to go to the extreme, if we want to succeed."

Sylvanas nodded approvingly. "I do not ask you to cast away your morals or believes. However, I can safely say that when this is over, none of us will be the same.

Let's go. We have wasted enough time as it is. I have an idea on what we do with the human settlements. We will infest them and let them grow for a while, before harvesting whatever biomass they produce."

"Using farms...as farms." Zaath scratched the back of his head. "I am not sure whether this sounds stupid or like a pretty good idea."

Sylvanas could only roll her eyes. She leaped into the air and flew ahead, her swarm obediently following her.

W-A-R

The village used to be a lively one, with traders from the big cities coming and going on a regular basis. Children used to play on the streets and normally at this point in time the marketplace would be bustling with activity. Barely anyone was outside.

Obviously, farmers were still working on their fields or herding their kettles. They were lucky, the strange sickness that not only killed people but seemingly sucked the very essence of life out of the land, had not reached this particular village as of yet. However, the Undead were still a threat in themselves and almost none of the villagers were experienced fighters. The few that served in the army organized a small militia with whatever weapons they could get their hold on. So far it worked against the brainless undead, but against bandit raids they stood no chance. Thus they had no choice but come to an agreement with the local bandit chief. Give them supplies on a regular basis and receive protection. It went against the villagers' skins, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It was the only way for them to survive. Unfortunately, those measurements would prove to be pointless.

Sylvanas was scouting the village from the skies, watching the villagers do their daily tasks. She was actually surprised so many were still alive. Her plan was to just infest the village, not pillage it of its biomass. However, she had only three Infestors at hand at the moment and none of her former rangers have yet shown abilities to spread the Zerg virus. In fact, most of them just had increased strength, speed, stronger minds and basic psi powers like mind reading and levitation. It meant for her, she could not afford to lose a single Infestor. If those fools fought back and managed to get some lucky shots, then she could forget her plan. And if Sylvanas knew one thing about humans then that they were a stubborn race.

 _Infestors! Get to work, immediately! The rest of you make sure the humans stay put!_

With a mental acknowledgment, the Zerg began surrounding the village as to prevent that any biomass would be wasted. They weren't exactly subtle about it, as such, it didn't take long for one of the guarding villagers to run into the center of the town, the town hall. In the meantime, the farmers dropped whatever they were doing and ran into their houses. Unbeknownst to the humans, this would only make things only easier for the Infestors.

Speaking of which, they already made their way towards the first buildings at the edge of said town. A small group of Hydralisks and Zerglings acted as their escort, while the remainder of the swarm simply waited. One man in ragged clothing tried to escape the perimeter. He quickly turned around precisely 180 degrees after one fake attack coming from a Hydralisk.

Just as the local militia came together, one of the Infestors "planted" a Virophage on the ground. Like any other Zerg structure, it firstly needed to grow, but at the rate at which it grew surprised even Sylvanas. Mere minutes passed until the structure burst open and began spitting a gray substance on the houses. Almost immediately tentacles and other things began to grow out of the house, which was deformed and damaged due to the process. The shrieks of nearby watching people reached Sylvanas' ears, but she ignored them. Likewise did the Infestors. They instead focused on their task at hand and went to the next set of buildings. At the same time, the people who had been hiding inside the building came out, showing their new infested form. The Queen of the Zerg frowned. If anything they would be good for demoralization and keeping the enemy occupied, but as a true fighting force? Orcs would probably be the better subject to the virus, but there were barely any left in Lordaeron. A problem Sylvanas would have to solve on another day.

As it turned out her worries about the humans fighting back weren't unjust. As soon as they saw what the Virophages did to their brethren, they charged straight at the Infestors with their poor equipment. The Hydralisks turned them to minced meat in a matter of seconds. One soldier came even close enough for one of the Infestors to eat him. After some time the same Infestor spit out a capsule and out of it came the soldier he had eaten before, now fully infested. The psychological effect was very effective, maybe too effective. As the Infestors planted more and more Virophages, the humans panicked. They desperately tried to break out of the perimeter but never came far. The Zerg didn't outright kill the humans, though some were killed on accident, rather they injured them and dragged them to the nearest infested building. Speaking of the buildings, they already started creating more Infested by using the genetic code of the former owners of the houses. The resources it dragged straight out of the very earth itself. Humans weren't particularly hard to recreate.

All in all, it took less than half an hour to infest the entire village. If Sylvanas wouldn't have been so careful, they probably could have done it faster. As soon as they were finished they didn't linger inside the village and instead marched to the next one. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened on the way there. They did manage to hunt down some of the local wildlife, though there wasn't actually much to find. This was most probably due to the fact that undead still roamed in the area. As a matter of fact, the next village they came by was just experiencing an attack by a few ghouls and zombies, controlled by some Necromancers. The villagers were completely taken off guard when Sylvanas came down from the skies and tore the necromancers apart. She followed suit with the remaining undead, using this mostly as an exercise. The villagers could only stare, though they didn't have time to stare for long. Before the village was even surrounded, the Infestors began their work, having Infested the first buildings, in which the people had barricaded themselves due to the attack. It was quite ironic really, but Sylvanas didn't complain, as it made things easier. As for the people? Let's just say their struggle didn't get them much. No one was spared. And soon enough they would be "harvested", once the population had grown a significant size.

Following a street that was in a state of disrepair, the Zerg forces came across a small Undead outpost. Nothing much, a few of those annoying Ziggurats, one or two buildings that from the looks of things acted as research centers. The Zerg had been able to smell the chemicals from a ten mile distance. Now that the base was in sight, the stench was almost unbearable.

"What are they doing in there?" Veice asked with an arm covering her nose. The army was still a fair distance away, out of range of the defensive towers.

"If I had to guess, working on their undead virus," Zaath added his two cents. He actually covered his nose with all four of his hands, one being slapped over the other. "Or maybe just chemical weapons."

"Whatever it is, we will destroy it. Veice? How about a little demonstration of your new powers? I'm genuinely curious about what you're capable of doing now."

"Of course, my Queen."

Truth to be told, Veice was curious too. So far she had only used spells she had been capable of doing before her own transformation. It was easier to cast those spells, as her energy reserves were bigger and her mind was capable of processing thoughts much quicker. However, she had yet to test her limit. And what better way to test her new powers, than by destroying the towers from afar? So far their army lacked proper artillery. So, who was to say that she couldn't turn herself into an artillery unit?

Making up her mind, Veice channeled both her magic and her psi at the same time. The spell itself didn't require any kind of complicated formula, it just required a lot of energy and a lot of time to cast. Although being a very powerful spell, most mages never really used it, since it took so long to channel. Veice managed to pull it off in roughly four seconds. Arms outstretched, a gigantic fireball began to appear in between. Zaath jumped back in surprise, trying to not get burned. Sylvanas stood her ground, despite the temperature increasing at a rapid rate.

Once big enough, Veice made a throwing motion, seemingly physically directing the fireball to the enemy camp. The resulting explosion incinerated the entire area. Luckily there were no trees present and the ground had been already dead thanks to the undead corruption or else the swarm might have to run for its life.

"Ah, I love the smell of Pyroblasts in the morning."

Sylvanas and Zaath gave Veice a look. Said Zerg blushed and looked away. "I'm sorry. It's an inside joke back from my days in Dalaran."

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The last village turned out to be a couple of miles away. It was pretty close to Stratholme, a former city the elves occasionally traded with. When scouting from above, Sylvanas was surprised to see a battalion of Knights in the middle of the plaza. They appeared to be talking with the leaders of the village and considering everything they were fairly well equipped. With her curiosity peaked, Sylvanas descended closer to the ground, until she was in hearing range, which generally meant that only one of the humans had to look up and they would have no problem spotting her.

"How long will it take until your people are prepared?" The leading knight asked.

"A day or two at most, my lord." The old villager answered. "For a travel as long as this, we'll need to gather all of the supplies we've managed to gather. And even then we'll have to rationalize everything until we arrive."

The Knight nodded. "I'm sorry we cannot give you any more-"

"No, no it's all right. We are grateful for Lord Garithos for taking us under his protection in the first place. Everything seems better than being here, fearing that one day we might wake up with our flesh falling off our bones."

"Hmph, that's true. I'll have my men help you with gathering everything you need. In the meantime, I need to see a map of the immediate area, in order to find the best route available to us. The one in my possession is heavily outdated."

"Of course, my lord. This way please." The old villager motioned at the town hall.

"I think I have a better idea," Sylvanas said before landing gracefully right in front of the Knights. The horses reacted nervously, some trying to get away, but were held in line by their riders. Swords were immediately drawn, as the Queen continued to talk.

"How about I repurpose your miserable existence and turn you into something useful?"

"What in the name of the light are you?!" The lead knight demanded.

Sylvanas didn't bother answering. She instead used her psi abilities and sent the man flying towards the wall of the nearest building.

"Demonic magic! Kill her!" Another Knight shouted. However, that was about when all was lost for them. The Zerg began their onslaught of the area, the Infestors having split up in order to cover a much larger area. Sylvanas herself jumped into the air and released lightning bolts out of the tip of her claws, perfectly killing everyone in front of her. It was a waste, but at the same time, it was efficient. The rest of the defenders were either killed or rallied into the houses, like cattle. Zerglings quickly surrounded the area, preventing anyone from running away. In a matter of minutes, all fighting stopped and the ground was covered with creep and every building sprouted the Zerg like tentacles, some even growing a carapace.

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"All in all, we can look forward to a successful harvest." The Queen smiled approvingly at a job well done. But had there ever been any doubt? "Now with our biomass production in full swing, we will soon be able to grow an army big enough to take over Lordaeron through the Undercity."

Zaath nodded, though a frown was apparent on his face.

"What is troubling you?" His Queen asked. "I can feel that something is worrying you. Is it because of the infestation? Do you have second thoughts?"

Zaath shook his head. "It's not quite that." He said and looked over to Veice. The Zerg woman was busying herself inspecting the body of a Swarm Queen.

"The design is rather bulky and outside of the creep area, you're really slow. I wonder if there's some way to modify your body, to make your movement speed more efficient. Although we might need to make you an overall new body...and I have no idea how to accomplish that."

"Something's bothering me, alright. My Queen, is it strange that I don't feel any remorse, with what we did to the humans?" The Zerg man asked with all arms crossed.

"That depends." Sylvanas answered looking over her "farm". A Hatchery was built in the middle of the plaza. Infested humans already lined up to be turned back into biomass, which would then be used to create new troops. The same procedure went on in the other villages. It was a rather inconvenient method, but it was the best one they had available at the moment. In the back of her mind, Sylvanas was already considering using trees a future biomass resource, though the efficiency of this one had yet to be determined.

"Depends on what?"

"Did you hate the humans beforehand for one reason or another? Did you held a grudge against a specific human, perhaps?"

Zaath shook his head. "Not that I can think off. Humans were just...humans to me like dwarves are dwarves and elves...well I do hold them in higher esteem than the other two."

"Hmm, but back when you suggested this idea, you didn't seem to have a problem." the Queen pointed out.

"Well yeah, but I still had doubts back then. Now that I see the result...I'm somehow satisfied."

"Hmm." Sylvanas closed her eyes for a brief moment. "The only thing I can think of is that you are already showing signs of change in your way of thinking. The Zerg virus, for the lack of better term, already makes you think like a Zerg. Indifferent, possibly hostile to other species, only thinking about the survival of the swarm. Well, we're not that far yet, but you and me…"

"...I see." Zaath nodded. "Somehow this isn't bothering me either." he shook his head. "I think I spotted a river earlier. Maybe some cold water will bring back my conscious or something along those lines."

Sylvanas watched him walk off, out of the village. She could only sigh. "Have you already forgotten what I said earlier today? None of us will remain the same. Guilt will only get in our way to achieving victory." She looked up at the blue sky "Our enemy certainly doesn't let something like guilt or consciousness get in her way."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Well, took longer than expected, but here we go.

With the help of the "bio farms", Sylvanas was able to create a for Zerg small base of operation. Due to a lag of vespene gas or a substitute, she focused on giving birth mostly to Zerglings. The base near Silvermoon was officially lost. Just a day after the capture of the human villages, her former High Elf brothers and sisters burned the old Zerg base to the ground, however not without catching a few live specimen for future studies. Sylvanas was okay with this, seeing no negative outcome from this.

In terms of invading Lordaeron, Sylvanas was ready after a day. It certainly helped that Zerg could be born within minutes or seconds in case of the Zerglings. The only reasons Terrans and Protoss could hold their own against the Zerg, was because both were very advanced technological races. The races on Azeroth could not compare to those. Sure they had magic, but so far that hadn't brought anyone off the planet. Actually, that was wrong, magic did bring people off the planet already, namely the mysterious homeworld of the Orks, but that required an insane amount of magic on both ends, not to mention that one had to actually find the world they wanted to connect with the other. Space travel may take longer, but it was definitely safer and more cost efficient.

But right now, the Hive Queen of Azeroth could only dream about space travel. After traveling through the dead lands of the humans, her army had finally come close to the capital. Considering that most of the army was missing, the city was still heavily fortified. The former guard had been reborn and was now patrolling the perimeters, as well as standing guard on the walls. Former citizens were now Ghouls and Zombies equipped with claws and swords alike. Additionally, the streets were packed with Nerubians, Necromancers, and even a few Banshees. No doubt those were Sylvanas former sisters, now forced to serve the fallen prince. The Queen promised silently to free them soon.

She turned her attention back to her army, which was quite busy burrowing their way through the ground, trying to find a way into the infamous Undercity. In all actuality, it wasn't really a city, but rather a prison. A prison that had the size of a city, thus the name. For generations, the human kings of Lordaeron threw murderers, war prisoners, and political enemies in there. There was only one successful escape attempt, that being of the late Horde Warchief Doomhammer. The Alliance never managed to capture the Orc again. Whether he was still alive or died in the wilds, no one knows. If he was still alive, Sylvanas would simply corrupt him. From the reports she had read, Doomhammer was considered a master strategist, at least by those that didn't let their stereotypical opinions of Orcs blind them. So really, adding him to swarm was a no-brainer, considering the stunts he managed to pull off.

The Queen was pulled out of her thoughts when she received a mental image from one of the Hydralisks. The swarm had managed to break through the walls and into what appeared to be an empty prison cell. A considerable huge, empty prison cell with rusty shackles hanging from the walls. The prison bars were just as rusty from decades of neglect, some were even missing. Most likely those had been removed from prisoners formerly or maybe still living in the Undercity. There was a high possibility that the place had been overrun by the undead.

Sylvanas ordered her Zerg to storm the underground and kill everything that got in their way. As usual, the Zerg obediently followed their queen's orders and immediately started to run rampant in the tunnels under the capital. It surprisingly didn't take long until the Zerg faced the first opposition. Sylvanas raised an eyebrow when she received mental reports of bigger than usual spiders, Gnolls, even some still alive prisoners fighting back against the Zerg wave, the latter using whatever crude weapon they could get their hands on. The Queen of the swarm pretty much ignored the happenings in the underground. The entrance to the Undercity was secured, her Zerg steadily going down and digging, even more, tunnels to breach the walls. Speaking off tunnels, Sylvanas made a mental note to finally establish a Nydus Network as soon as she was done here. Having one now would have made things much easier.

Taking her attention away from the seemingly endless stream of Zerg, the Queen refocused her attention to the Mutalisks in the skies, who of course couldn't possibly help out with the invasion of the underground. However, that didn't mean they were completely useless, quite the opposite actually. Sylvanas flexed her wings for a few moments, before heading off into the sky and flying in the direction of the castle. The Mutalisks were following her immediately, making it look like there was a giant bat in the sky, which was leading a swarm of smaller bats somewhere, similar to how birds traveled between seasons. However, as we know, this was not a group of birds migrating, this was actually a distraction attack.

In order to delay the discovery of the main force as long as possible, Sylvanas decided to distract the enemy via an attack coming from the air. Air warfare was still a completely new thing in Azeroth. Lordaeron hadn't been built with airstrikes and the like in mind. Behind the city was a mountain range, another was next to a lake. Both sides were perfectly protected from ground based attacks due to the land structure. However, both of those things didn't protect the city from Sylvanas and her Mutalisks.

The Queen's plan was as follows. She and half of her Mutalisks would attack the city from directly from the front and cause a little chaos, which in return would alert the local defenders. Once they got the attention of the undead, two other groups of Mutalisks would bombard the city, namely from the positions that were previously mentioned. A simple tactic, when you broke it down, but then again, who would expect an attack coming from the sky? Gyrocopters were expensive and took a lot of time to make, Gargoyles came all the way from Northrend and were only briefly seen by the human forces. And why would the undead expect their own troops attacking themselves? And finally, it has been years since an Orc Dragonrider had been spotted anywhere.

As such, the skeletal archers were taken completely off guard, when Sylvanas dive-bombed onto the wall, perfectly destroying that junction. The Mutalisks followed immediately, focusing their glave wurms on the mindless zombies running around the streets. The few Necromancers left behind immediately sounded the alarm, although "immediately" is to interpret as Sylvanas had enough time to release a huge amount of psi energy inside one of the towers. The resulting explosion caused said tower to collapse. This display of power was mainly there to make sure every defender in the city was alerted to her presence. And it worked.

For a while, Sylvanas allowed herself to get lost in the bloodlust, ripping and tearing apart each and every undead, be they man, woman or even children. Her claws easily ripped rotten flesh apart, tore through bones or sometimes she would use her psionic powers to for example let a bunch of bones fly high into the sky, collected them all together into one giant ball and threw them right at a group of enemies. If she had known the sport, the Queen might have played bowling with the ball and the zombies. She certainly had the time, seeing as her armor was impenetrable for both the weapons and the weak magic spells the Necromancers were able to cast. One might wonder how they got chosen to be part of the surge in the first place. But then again, a master magician could always use someone who cleaned up his desk, someone who didn't leave a drool of gray and green slime behind. Sylvanas didn't mind the weak opponents. She was having the time of her life, releasing much pent up stress.

Her Mutalisks were doing their part as well. The arrows of both archers and crossbow users didn't even reach the high up flying Zergs. As for magic, well, the carapace and sometimes the flesh underneath got a little bit burned, but mostly the Mutalisks were too fast to be even hit by spells. As for instantly hitting spells, like corruption, it did only so much against the highly evolved regeneration abilities of the Zerg.

Still, there were a lot of undead soldiers present in the city, even if it paled compared to Arthas' personal army. But it didn't take long for Sylvanas to find herself surrounded by growing piles of defeated enemies. It wasn't like their corpses were going to disappear in a matter of seconds, although some of the zombies were so rotten, one might have expected just that to happen. As such, Sylvanas mentally ordered the two groups of Mutalisks, who at this point were waiting above the clouds, to come down and the city from the two supposedly easiest to defend spots.

It took about a minute or two, but almost simultaneously buildings were bombarded by the Mutalisks. The Necromancers shouted orders, but they pretty much got lost under the shrieks the Mutalisks let out, as they continued their non-stop attack on the enemy ground forces and buildings, while Sylvanas continued to enjoy herself on the ground. However something was nagging in the back of her mind for quite some time now and after ripping a head off a black magician and kicking it against another magician, when she decided to head into the sky and away from the carnage. As she surveyed the battlefield, she finally noticed what was bothering her: where the hell were the Ziggurats? They were essential defensive structures to the Undead and highly effective ones at that. Sylvanas herself had been shot a couple of times by those things and was only still alive because back then she had her highly enchanted armor. Yeah, it kind of exposed her belly button, but the enchanters luckily thought this one through and gave her entire body magical protection.

Back to the situation at hand, why the capital had so lackluster defenses. Sure the garrison was numerous, compared to the ones the elves had. But still, even a few of those static defenses would have made Sylvanas life that much harder. As enjoyable as this convenience was, it had to mean something. Arthas was impulsive, but far from a fool. He wouldn't leave his own capital so lackluster defended without a good reason. Either he thought the undead army present would be enough to defend the capital, a reasonable thought considering the undead controlled most of the local territories or something else prevented Arthas from properly investing in home defenses. Whatever the reason, Sylvanas didn't have enough information to figure out this puzzle. She could speculate, but there was literally a battle going on beneath and another time beneath her feet. Before she could return to battle, however, Sylvanas received a mental image from a few of the Zerg underground. They had found Orcs. Orcs, who found a hidden gold lode and were digging up as much as they possibly could. Immediately Sylvanas ordered her Zerg to capture those Orcs alive and bring them back to the surface. Afterward, she literally dived back into the fight, wondering how good she would do at the sport called baseball and how she could possibly mimic this Terran sport.

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Veice and Zaath watched with curiosity, as unconscious and heavily injured Orcs were carried out of the caves by the Drones and then "stored" into the Overlords to be used for later. Zaath counted at least ten grunts and fifteen peons.

"That was a pretty bold move from the Orcs. Digging gold from directly under the humans' noses." Zaath commented, crossing all of his arms.

"They must have a settlement somewhere in the mountains," Veice stated, putting a hand under her chin. "Either that or this was a rogue group, acting on their own accord."

"I go with the first theory." Zaath opted his opinion. "Orcs lean very heavily on honor, even those under demon influence. If they're rogue then it must have been an entire clan that decided to leave the main horde after the last war. Wouldn't surprise me. I've hunted those things for years after the war. That one time we managed to capture an entire clan, although clan is a generous calling. There was barely anyone left in that particular clan after they suffered heavy losses during the battle of Lordaeron city. I think some of them were even glad to be put in refugee camps and that's saying something if an Orc of all creatures is happy to be captured."

"Under the right circumstances, everyone can be broken." Veice sighed. "In the grand scheme of things, our tiny wars are meaningless compared to the systems falling and rising within the Koprulu sector. If we don't secure this planet soon, I'm afraid our entire rebirth was all for naught."

"Hey, why are you so melodramatic all of the sudden?" Zaath asked, a little surprised. "Azeroth is pretty far away from the Koprulu Sector and so far, only the Queen of Blades knows about us. We're probably not even on her high priority list, because of the constant skirmishes between her broods, the Protoss and the Terrans. Plus, we have something none of those races have: magic."

"We could easily subject this planet without magic." Veice retorted.

Zaath silently scoffed. "I'm getting sick of this depressing talk already. I think I'm going on a little patrol and make sure we aren't cut off from our supply lines." The male Zerg did as he said, leaving Veice alone behind to guard the makeshift entrance to the Undercity. Why her Queen decided to leave her behind in the first place, was beyond the Zerg woman. The area was secured, small patrols having dealt with some stray undead forces and some unfortunate thieves. Really, Veice would be of better use at the front, but she wasn't the one calling the shots. And she knew better than to go against orders. Not that she had much of a choice now since it was written in her very genetics to not disobey her Queen under any circumstances.

Having nothing better to do, Veice took a Zergling aside and decided to study it as much as possible with no lab equipment and only magic available.

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While Sylvanas and her troops were busy cleaning out the undead of Lordaeron, the High Elves were facing challenges of their own. One of the biggest without a doubt was the rejuvenation of the now dead land, which consisted of a straight line going through their lands. Not only that, but there were still undead stragglers left behind, some having barricaded themselves in the deserted villages, not to mention the traitor Dar'Khan had disappeared without a trace, either hiding somewhere or having retreated from the lands with the fallen prince and his army. Finally, the general public still demanded answers from the High Council and the crown about the insectoid demons, who first wrecked the plaza and then all of the sudden helped out against the undead invaders. Without the shadow of a doubt, the High King was one busy elf these days, who felt like his age had doubled over the past couple of weeks.

Luckily Prince Kael'Thas had returned from Dalaran and was helping out wherever he was needed, be it securing the Eversong Woods once again or helping his father with simple paperwork. Right now, he was doing the latter.

"It doesn't appear like food is going to be a problem for some time. The food storages we constructed after the Orc invasion are paying off." the son informed his father, before picking up another piece of paper. "Our mages are having trouble finding out just how this...plague" Kael spit out the word "is working." He shook his head, sadly. "From the looks of things, we'll need to cultivate more land, if we don't find a solution soon. But in order to do that, we need…"

"...people." Kael's father finished, letting out a tired sigh. The old man leaned back in his chair, taking a sip from the over-decorated wine glass. "We have lost so many...how is the search for survivors going along?"

It was Kael's turn to let out a tired sigh. "Not good." The younger elf put down the piece of paper and looked picked out another one of the many sprayed across the desk of his father. "We're constantly receiving reports of more undead stragglers left behind. The corpses that have been found cannot even be returned to the families or else we risk them rising once again. The Rangers have orders to burn them upon sight. To make matters worse, the Trolls are seizing the opportunity and are attacking our weakened borders. The few troops we have left are busy holding them back, thinning out our resources even more."

"I see." the high king spoke sadly. "I have ruled for many years and I can say without the shadow of a doubt that this is the direst situation our folk is facing in our entire history."

"If only I had been here…"

"Stop blaming yourself, my son." High King Anasterian looked into his son's eyes. "The past is in the past. If we could go back in time, the High Elves would be supreme rulers over all of Azeroth. Ha, ha, ha." the old elf laughed over his own joke. "The only thing we can do is learn from our mistakes and live on. Don't think about what you could have done. Focus on what you can do or else you'll be just left behind."

"You're right, father. I'm sorry." Kael'Thas let his head hung low.

"Don't worry about it." the old elf waved off. "We're the ones the people look up to. We need to give them hope in those dark times and seeing us worry just makes them worry. So, back to the matter at hand, can we hope to receive support from Dalaran?"

"As much as they can spare." Kael'Thas replied. "The council decided to fortify its defenses, as they expect the undead to attack any day. Arthas made it clear that he was after the Sunwell. Now that this has been denied to him, the mages suspected he will go after the next best source of magic available. For what he needs this vast amount of magic is unclear at this point, but seeing the amount of control he already has over the undead, it undoubtedly has something to do with them."

"Hmm, troublesome times indeed. No matter what Arthas is planning, we cannot allow him to gain any more magic than he already possesses. But then again, there is not much we can do at the moment." Anasterian sighed once again and looked at the casualty report lying on his desk. It wasn't even a final number.

"That damn human. When I get my fingers on him…" Kael'Thas grumbled something under his breath.

"He's out of our reach. For now, let's focus our efforts here. Have our mages made any headway in their study of those new creatures, those Zerg?"

Kael suppressed his anger and quickly searched for the right report. "Not much, I'm afraid. The Zerg are an enigma in themselves. How Sylvanas even stumbled upon them is a complete mystery. Outside of the one...nest she told us about, we couldn't find any traces of those insects. The nest was abandoned and we decided to burn it to the ground, just to be sure. This is almost as disturbing as the sudden appearance of the undead. Just what is going on?"

"I don't know, son. I honestly don't know. These past years have not been kind to us. A considerable amount of the high council wants Sylvanas dead so that she won't be a threat to us."

"I cannot blame them for thinking this way." Kael opined.

"Some even go as far as thinking Sylvanas tapped into some long forgotten dark magic and summoned those demons to Azeroth, as a desperate attempt to protect our lands in exchange for her soul. This is just one of the many theories I had to listen to these past days, one more outlandish than the other. I had hoped if our mages gained some insight in the Zerg, we might finally find some true answers. Whatever the case, Sylvanas saved our lives and now is out there with her own army, hunting down the fallen prince of Lordaeron."

"Do you believe she can be reasoned with?" the elven prince asked.

"Well, when I last spoke to her, it didn't appear like she had lost her soul. However, I am rather hesitant towards the idea of having a diplomatic relationship of any kind with our poor former general. We do not know what really happened to her. For all we know, this is one gigantic scheme, orchestrated by a demon or some other dark being." The old elf rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming.

"The world is about to change, my son. We need to treat the ground very carefully. Else I am afraid we face the extinction of our people."


End file.
